[Advaita-l] Authorship of Saundaryalahari

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear Jaldhar,

*Your( **JHV’s**)* *Res**p**onse**:*

shrI bhAskararAya in his saubhAgyabhAskara on lalitAsahasR^inAma quotes
from saundaryalaharI several times and considers shaMkarAchArya to be its
author. For instance under shloka 189: saundaryalaharyo mukhaM binduM
kR^itveti shloke[1] spaShTakalpamuktaM
bhagavatpAdaiH


*My (SKB’s) Reply:*


The Sloka 19 of Anandalahari is as follows:


मुखं बिन्दुं कृत्वा कुचयुगमधस्तस्य तदधो

   हरार्धं ध्यायेद्यो हरमहिषि ते मन्मथकलाम् ।
स सद्यः संक्षोभं नयति वनिता इत्यतिलघु

   त्रिलोकीमप्याशु भ्रमयति रवीन्दुस्तनयुगाम्
॥आनन्दलहरी-१९॥Bhaskaracharya(also called as Bhasurananda Natha), who
was born in the 18th centuryAD/CE, had imagined the Anandalahari verse
19, to have been written by Adi Shankara. Anandalahari was neither
written by Adi Shankara(who was born in the 6thcentury BCE) nor by
Abhinava Shankara(who was born in the 8th century AD/CE). Some people
imagine that Adi Shankara got the Ananda lahari from Kailash and then
he wrote the Saundaryalahari. I understand that  Anandalahari was
written by a king, who was related to king Shri Harsha Vikramaditya. I
an not surprised that many advaitins (including you) have not heard
about him.   AS regards the second part, (i.e., the Saundaryalahari),
my view is that it was written by Abhinava Shankara and not by Adi
Shankaracharya. You have not been able    to prove the authorship of
Adi Shankaracharya. As regards Swami Abhinavavidyatirtha of Shringeri,
he thought Adi Shankara to be
born in the 8th century AD, and that is when Abhinava Shankara was
born and not Adi Shankara.
Your also quoted the opinions of a few others, but those were vague
assertions and not proof about Adi Shankara‘s writing the
Saundaryalahari portion.
My 2 cents
Sunil K. Bhattaharjya