Adi Shankara A brief history

Raj Vedam, May 12, 2013

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Adi Shankara - Ancestry

• Born in Kalady in Kerala, a village on the

banks of the Purna river.

• Grandfather: Vidhyadhiraja

• Father: Shivaguru

• Mother: Aryamba or Vishista Devi

• Gothram: Atri

• Krishna Yajurvedi

• Nambudari Brahmana

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Kalady – Location on the map

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Kalady – closer look

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Brief Outline of Travels

• At age of 8, left Kerala toward North, met guru

Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of Narmada.

• After studies went to Kashi then to Badrinath.

• Met Kumarila in Prayag. Proceeded to Mahismati

on Narmada in MP to meet Madana Mishra.

• Went with disciples to Maharashtra,Gokarna, and

Kollur near Shimoga.

• Then began Dig-Vijaya (tour of conquest). Traveled

all over India. Went to Kashmir, Nepal, Tamil Nadu,

Andhra Pradesh, Vidarbha, Karnataka, Saurashtra

Girnar, Somnath, Prabhasa, Dwarka. Went up to

Kamboja (north of Kashmir?).

• Final days, went to Kedarnath-Badrinath 5/16/2013 5 Raj Vedam

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Some Works of Adi Shankara

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara_

bibliography

• Bhashyas (commentaries) on the

Upanishads, Bhagavatgita, Mahabharata.

• Prakarana Grantha (Thesis)

(Vivekachudamani, Upadesa sahasri,

Tattva Bodha, etc.)

• Stotras on Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Ganesha

and Subrahmanya (e.g., Bhaja Govindam,

Bhavani Astakam, Dakshinamurthy

stotram, etc.)

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Dating Adi Shankara

• Sringeri records: 788CE-820CE

• Kanchi Peetam, Govardhana Matha,

Dwaraka Pitha: 509-477BCE

• Another tradition (astrologer BV Raman)

44BCE-12BCE

• 805CE–897CE (Venkiteswara) (92 years)

• Controversies exist till today on first two

dates.

• Made a critical study of both periods

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788CE-820CE (question)

• Sringeri records: 14 years into the reign of

Vikramaditya.

Vikramaditya 100BCE of Paramara Dynasty (Ujjain,

MP)

Chandragupta Vikramaditya(375CE); Fa-Hsien

visited this king

Vikramaditya I of Chalukyas (655CE-680CE)

Vikramaditya II of Chalukyas (733CE-746CE)

Vikramaditya V of Chalukyas (1008CE-1015CE)

Vikramaditya VI of Chalukyas (1076CE to 1126CE)

Dharmakirti

Madhavacharya 5/16/2013 9

Raj Vedam

788CE to 820CE (support)

• Disciple Sureshwaracharya quotes the

Buddhist Acharya Dharmakirti in his

Brihadaranyaka Bhashya.

• Dharmakirti: “professor” at Nalanda; quoted

by Huen-Tsang visited in 630CE.

• Dating Dharmakirti: Window 480CE – 660CE

• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dharmakiirti/

• Dating Nalanda: 400CE-1197CE

• Established by Gupta King Kumara Gupta,

destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193CE.

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788CE to 820CE (question)

• Actors:

• Dharmakirti

• Kumarila Bhat

• Madana Mishra

• Shankara debated Madana Mishra whose

guru was Kumarila Bhat, a student of

Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti died before

660CE. Thus Kumarila Bhat should have

lived till around 700CE. But Shankara

would not be born till 788CE! How could

he have debated Madana Mishra and

made him his disciple?

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788CE-820CE (support)

• Actors:

• Varahamihira (505CE-587CE)

• Vishnudharmottara Purana ~450CE

• Paitamaha Sidhanta ~80CE

• Adi Shankara quotes many puranas during

his commentaries, and refers to Vishnu

Dharmotara Purana, which in turn contains

"Paitamaha Sidhanta”.

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788CE-820CE (support)

• Actors

• Huen-Tsang (602CE-664CE)

• Bin Qasim (695CE-715CE)

• Raja Dahir (671CE-712CE)

• Shankara visited Somnath, but not Sindh

or Multan (Sun Temple - Prahalad).

• Huen-Tsang reports in 641CE that Dubal

and Sindh had many Shiva temples.

• Bin Qasim's conquest of Sindh was

complete after killing Raja Dahir in 712CE.

• Shankara visited Peshawar (fell to

Muslims in 988CE).

• Visited Kashmir (fell to Muslims in 1346) 5/16/2013 13 Raj Vedam

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Extent of Bin Qasim (Ummayid)

*Somnath

*Dwaraka

*Pushkar

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The World in 800CE

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509BCE-477BCE

• Govardhana Matha, Dwaraka Pitha and Kanchi

Peetham support this date.

• Based on hints in Bhashyas & astronom. data

• Main objection: Requires Buddha to be dated

earlier.

• http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/dating-

Sankara.html

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Dating Gauthama Buddha

• Chinese, Japanese, Korean Tradition: 949BCE or

878BCE.

• Northern Buddhism Tibeto-Mongolian,date: 881BCE

• Up to 5th Century CE, common date: 686BCE

• Southern Buddhism date: 543BCE

• From 17th century European scholars, trying to fix

Greek sources to Pali, converged towards later date,

about 500BCE

• In 19th and 20th centuries, 483BCE or 486BCE

• More recent opinions fix Buddha's death to 100 years

before Ashoka's coronation, to 368BCE.

• Alexander’s campaign in India: 326BCE.

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Later Date for Buddha

• Ashokavadana – “Narrative of Ashoka” –

in Buddhist literature: ~100CE text.

• States that Ashoka’s coronation happened

100 years after Buddha’s nirvana .

• Translated by Fa-Hian in 300CE

• Sri Lankan records say 218 years between

nirvana and coronation of Ashoka

• Who is right?

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Earlier Date: Upanishads & Buddha

• Alleged that Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka,

Prasna and Katha Upanishads show Buddhist influence -

so may have been composed after 300BCE .

• Equally possible influence other way around!

• Buddha refers to Upanishads:

http://www.dhammaweb.net/Tipitaka/read.php?id=13

• From Tevijja Sutta, part of Pali Canon:

"Right and wrong paths, Reverend Gotama. There are so

many kinds of Brahmins who teach different paths: the

Addhariya, the Tittiriya, the Chandoka, the Chandava, the

Brahmacariya to Brahmins - do all these ways lead to

union with Brahma? …”

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Dating Upanishads

Author Range(BCE) Methods

Tilak 6000-200 Astronomical

BVK Aiyer 2300-2000 Astronomical

Max Muller 1000-800 Linguistic

Ranade 1200-600 Linguistic, Ideological

Radhakrishnan 800-600 Ideological

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Dating Gauthama Buddha

• http://indology.info/papers/cousins/node1/

• http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/fil

es/2010/05/prebish-article.pdf

• http://www.indologie.uni-

muenchen.de/dokumente/publ_hartmann/j

uh_buddha_date.pdf

• http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Hist

oricalZen/dating_the_Buddha.pdf

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509BCE- 477BCE (support)

• Adi Shankara is silent about Islam.

• In 788CE, would have been aware of Arab

traders in Kerala

• Would have heard of Cheraman Perumal

who converted to Islam.

• Would have heard of destruction of

temples in Sindh and Multan.

• Why did he not mention Islam at all?

• He labored to protect Hinduism against

Buddhism, but no mention of the

destructive Islam?

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The World in 1000BCE

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Upanishads

Buddha Adi

Shankara

Alexander Ashoka

Upanishads

Buddha,

Upanishads

Alexander

Ashoka

Adi Shankara

Older Date Chronology

Later Date Chronology

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