[Advaita-l] Encounter between Madhvacharya and a Sringeri Pontiff

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 2:36 PM, D Gayatri <dgayatrinov10 at gmail.com> wrote:

> //The purpose of the post was to show that the attempts of those who want
> to somehow deny the existence of the Sringeri Maṭha before Vidyaranya will
> not work.//
>
> I am at a loss to understand what gain or loss Paul Hacker is going to get
> by denying Sringeri Mutt its due. If the mutt is really older than
> Vidyaranya, and if Hacker has deliberately twisted facts, it would only
> harm his reputation. I am not saying Hacker is perfect, but he sincerely
> tried to verify the tradition, but could not find any evidence in favor of
> the tradition. However, one needs to have an open mind. If there is some
> evidence that was missed by Hacker, people are welcome to present it.
>

With or without Paul Hacker's 'findings' the situation does not change.
Even before his findings people have striven for the Truth and attained it
with the available infrastructure. Hacker's findings are not in any way
going to affect that. Hacker's sincerity will face a stonewall since he
cannot go beyond the kind of evidence he is looking for. Just because the
kind of evidence he is looking for is not available, he cannot conclude
that the tradition/evidence itself did not exist. So, whatever evidence
that is not within his idea of evidence will not convince him.

>
> // I had also said that the Madhvas believe about such an encounter. //
>
> Beliefs don't constitute historical evidence, because beliefs themselves
> are in need of verification.
>

No problem.  What is 'history' for the academician, is charitram for the
believer.  Prahlada Charitram needs no verification for it to convey the
message it is intended to.

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