[Advaita-l] Who wrote Saundarya Lahari?

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Namaste, 

Some scholars think ShaivAchArya  JnAna sambandhar to be the Dravida-shishu. Another contender could be the Dravida-prince Pravarasena, who could have eventually become the king of Kashmir. Kashmir is the land of Mother Parvati and the women of Kashmir are amshas of Parvati and so saying the Lord installed a pregnant widowed queen of Kashmir on the throne of Kashmir and that was just before the birth of her son, Gonanda-II.  It would not be surprising that Pravarasena could be the writer of the Ananda-lahari. It could be that a later-day Shankaracharya, probably the Abhinava Shankara, could have written the latter 59 verses of the Saundarya-lahari. 

However as regards the authorship of the Viveka -chudamani there seems to be no doubt that Adi Shanakracharya was the author of that.
Regards,Sunil KB
 


     On Wednesday, July 29, 2015 12:50 AM, Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
   

 We have to look at all this. May be Holenarsipur Swami is right to say he is doubting Adi Sankara wrote this.

praNAms 
Hare Krishna

My humble request is not to contrast the name of Sri SSS when somany other scholars too having the difference of opinion on this i.e. including late Prof. S.K. Ramachandra Rao who was heading the Kalpataru Foundation at Sringeri Shankara Mutt, Bangalore.  As a matter of fact, there are somany devi, shiva, ganesha, subramanya, vishNu stotras including stOtra-s on rivers like narmadAshtaka, yamunAshtaka, gangAshtaka etc. in the name of shankaraachArya.  In devi stOtra collection itself we have bhavAnyashtaka, devi bhujanga, Ananda lahari, tripurasundari veda pAda stotra, Tripura sundari mAnasa pooja etc. Overall more than 250 stotra-s are there in shankarachaarya-s name.  It is not possible to categorically ascertain the authorship of these minor works since style and contents not similar and sometimes contradictory.  And when it comes to 'devi-para' stOtra-s in general and SL in particular, scholars differ in their opinion.  I think there is some discussion with regard to this in Baladeva upAdhyAya's shankara biography.  And as discussed in the previous mails, there is a mention about 'dravida shishu' and for this shishu devi herself done the breast feeding saying goes and there is an existing belief that this dravida shishu is one of the shaivAchArya-s jnAna saMbandhar, which again already mentioned in this thread.  And there is another belief that both Ananda lahari and SL have been handed over by shiva when shankarachaarya visited kailAsa :-) So nothing is conclusive here.  And when we compare these stOtra-s with shankara's PTB, it is difficult to reconcile the contents and declare that both prakaraNa and bhAshya are from the same pen.  Some scholars ( Prof. SKR) say that  in PTB & kArika there is no mention of tAntrika vichAra and no refutation or defense of shAkteya mata and since shankara says in geeta bhAshya  that there is mention of 'bhUtejya' with regard to vinAyaka, mAtrugaNa, chaturbhagini etc. and the worship of bhUta gaNa like sapta mAtruka will be considered as 'tAmasa pooja etc. it is difficult to believe devipara stOtra are the works of shankara and sri vidyOpAsana has been advocated by shankara.  Again here also pundit-s differ from their opinion and issue is still open.  BTW, I humbly request prabhuji-s of this group not to open separate thread once again with regard to shankara's commentaries on geeta bhAshya on worship of vinAyaka & saptamAtrukA pooja etc. as we have already discussed these issues from all possible viewpoints.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar
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