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Adi Shankara Adi Shankara A brief history Raj Vedam, May 12, 2013 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 1 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 2 Kalady – Location on the map 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 3 Kalady – closer look 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 4 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 Raj Vedam 5 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 6 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.) 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 7 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 8 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam Madhavacharya 9 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. 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 10 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? 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 11 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”. 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 12 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). 5/16/2013 • VisitedRaj Kashmir Vedam (fell to Muslims in 1346)13 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 14 Extent of Bin Qasim (Ummayid) *Pushkar *Dwaraka *Somnath 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 15 The World in 800CE 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 16 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 17 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. 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 18 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? 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 19 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? …” 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 20 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 21 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 22 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? 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 23 The World in 1000BCE 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam 24 Older Date Chronology Upanishads Alexander Ashoka Buddha Adi Shankara Later Date Chronology Upanishads Adi Shankara Buddha, Upanishads 5/16/2013 AlexanderRaj Vedam 25 Ashoka .
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