[Advaita-l] vajrOli yOga & shankara bhagavatpAda

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

The legendary curse was only on those immediately involved in the story, not on all Nambudiri families. In
any case,  the Kerala local tradition attributes a lot of practices unique to Nambudiri society to Sankara's life.
There are varying opinions among historians about the actual origins of these special customs in Nambudiri
society.
 
e.g. From http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/veda.htm -
 
"The 
Namboothiris are probably unique to have a sub-caste of Brahmanans who are 
excluded from Vedams. They are called "Othillatha Namboothiris" (Namboothiris 
without Othu). "Othu" is the colloquial word for Vedam. These include Chaathira 
Namboothiris (who were engaged only in military exercises, in the form of games 
like Panemkali), Adukkala Namboothiris (who specialised in large-scale cooking), 
and, interestingly, some keezh-santhi Namboothiris (temple priests). The 
Astavaidyans, eight families of hereditary physicians, except Vaidyamadham, are 
Othillatha Namboothiris. All Othillatha Namboothiris study Samhitha (Vedic text) 
but not the remaining portions like Brahmanam, Aaranayakam and Upanishad. Also, 
they do not perform any Vedic Sroutha ritual, nor teach or practice Vedam 
recitation. "
 
Also read the epilogue at the end of this page - http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/sankaraachaaryar.htm ,
from the pen of Dr. Kunjunni Raja, late director of the Adyar Library.
 
Best regards,
Vidyasankar
 
> 
> I downloaded the PDF Sankara Dig Vijaya from Sringeri web site. On page 17
> Adi Sankara cursed the Namboodiri Brahmins 'May you become incompetent to
> study the Vedas! May no Sanyasin visit your place for bhiksha! May you
> cremate your dead bodies in your own house compounds!’ He cursed them
> because they did not give fire for cremation of his mother.
> 
> I have one question. The curse was Namboodiris should not be competent to
> study Vedas. But today also we see they are even doing Srauta Yajnas like
> Soma Yaaga and others in Kerala and places like Bhadrachalam in AP.
> Namboodiris have Vedic experts and follow Vedas strictly. How is it
> possible Adi Sankara's curse is not true after thousand years?  I heard
> they cremate the dead bodies in the compound like the curse.
>