"Shankaracharia hill"

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>Does anyone know why this hill is called the Shankaracharia hill (because
>Sri Sankara attained samadhi there?) ?
>

The Shankaracharya Hill in Kashmir is near Srinagar. This is not the place
where Sankara spent his last days. There is also an old tradition of a
sarvajnapeetha in the Sarada temple in Kashmir. Alberuni refers to this
ancient temple, and in the Visishtadvaita tradition, Ramanuja is also said
to have visited this Peetha, in order to get a copy of the baudhAyana
vRtti, a pre-Sankaran vedAntic commentary. This Sarada temple is now said
to be on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control.

Kalhana's Rajatarangini, a history of Kashmir kings, says that King Jaluka,
son of Asoka, built a Siva temple on this hill. The temple is quite old,
but the hill got renamed as Shankaracharya hill later. Still later, after
the Muslims came into the Kashmir valley, it was renamed Takht-i-Suleiman.
It is nowadays known by both names.

Vidyasankar