ashtottaram (fwd)

[Ravi Mayavaram]

namaste

I received this mail form shrI vidyasankar, I will incorporate the
corrections mentioned and post the corrected copy. In this mail shrI
Vidyasankar, has answered my doubt about the name brahma rAkShasa
poShakaH as well.

with respects,
Ravi


---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 09:16:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya at cco.caltech.edu>
To: msr at reddy20.tamu.edu
Subject: ashtottaram

Hi Ravi,

I had a little time this morning, when I went through the archives, and
saw the SankarAcArya ashTottaraSata stotram. The dative form -Aya holds
only for a-kArAnta words. So, in the nAmAvalI format, the fifth name
should be varNASrama-pratishThAtre namaH, using the dative form of a root
ending in R^i (pratishThAtR^i), as in pitA, mAtA etc. The same rule will
apply for names like parivrAjASramoddhartA ( ...dhartre). I'm unsure of
the change for the I-kArAnta word (...svatantradhIH), but I'll check up
and let you know. For i-kArAnta, the change will be to -aye, as in hariH
-> haraye, and for u-kArAnta, it is -ave, as in guruH -> gurave. For words
ending in AtmA, the form will be Atmane, and for words ending in -vAn, it
will be -vate (e.g. bhagavAn -> bhagavate). And the correct forms for some
other words are -  ...t.h -> ...te (...rUpabhR^it.h, ....vibhAgavit.h,
...praveSakR^it.h etc.), and kshemadAyI -> kshemadAyine.

Also, I believe the correct form should be trayImArga prakASakaH, not
prakASaH. The meter is not satisfied and the ka- ending also signifies the
person better. And it should be vairAgyaniratas, not nirato~;
sattvapradhAnas, not satva~; vyAkhyAsimhAsanAdhIsho, not vAkhya~;
yogihR^itpadma, not ~hR^idpadma; bhagavatpAda, not bhagavadpAda; and
sarvadigvijayaprabhuH, not ...dik~. No other obvious errors came to my
attention. If I catch any more, I'll let you know.

The name ratnagarbhaherambapUjakaH refers to the form of Ratnagarbha
Ganapati that is worshipped at Sringeri. The ChandramauliprapUjakaH refers
to the Sivalingas worshipped at all the mathams. They are supposed to have
been obtained from Kailasa by SankarAcArya. The references to SrIcakra are
to Kanchipuram and the Akhilandeswari temple in Tiruvanaikka (the
tATanka reference - earrings of Ambal in the form of SrIcakra). The
reference to brahmarAkshasaposhaka is an obscure story, according to which
Sankara freed a brahmarAkshasa from Durvasa's curse. I'm not sure of the
source of this legend, but many mathams have a small shrine for a
brahmarAkshas, also known as Malayala Brahmana. This shrine in Sringeri is
right outside the Saradambal temple, and I'm told there are similar
shrines in Hampi, Kudali and other mathams affiliated with Sringeri. Some
story versions relate the brahmarAskhas to vidyAraNya, not SankarAcArya
himself. The titles vyAkhyAnasimhAsanAdhISvara and RshyaSrngapureSvara
are found in the birudAvali of the Sringeri Acharyas to date.

Namaskarams,
Vidyasankar