[Advaita-l] Birth Place of Shankara

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Fri, 29 Aug 2003, venkata subramanian wrote:

> there wqs a quible about Sri Shankara's birth place.
>  i have come to know that, Sri Swami Sachidanandendra Saraswathi of
> Holenarsipur has written a masterly analysis about the Great Acharya, -
> Sri Shankara Chartira itihasa......vichara (some thing like that) in
> Kannada.
>  in that, interestingly he (as i was told) has said that from the
> original writings of Sri Acharya, we have no evidence to conclude that
> he was born in south India only.  In his work he mentions about
> pataliputra (Brahma Sutra Bhashya) and thus, mention about north india
> is definite.

Just as using the proverb "carrying coals to Newcastle" doesn't
automatically mean you are from Northern England, a mention of
Pataliputra (modern Patna in Bihar) doesn't imply anything by itself as it
is a stock example in many Sanskrit sayings.

Interestingly in the Saundaryalahiri there is a shloka which speaks of
Mataji being adored by the "Dravidashishu" (child of Dravida)  Is
Shankaracharya talking about himself?  Some scholars think so.  Others
think it could refer to the saint Jnanasambandha.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/