[Advaita-l] Pre-sannyAsa name of Adi Shankaracharya?

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 1 Jul 2004, V. Krishnamurthy wrote:

> Namaste
>
> In the entire Indian tradition, all SannyAsis take up (or
> are given) a new name at the time of SannyAsa. What was the
> pre-sannyAsa name of Adi Shankaracharya? If the name given
> to him by his parents was 'Shankara', as all accounts seem
> to say, then, was there no change of name at the time of
> formal initiation into SannyAsa by his guru
> Govinda-bhagavat-pAda?
>

Shankaracharya was the founder of the Dashanami order of Sannyasis so
presumably rules such as changing ones name were started by him and
applied to those who came after him.  Are there any pre-shankaran
instances of people changing their name upon taking sannyasa?  I can't
think of any off-hand.  The upanishadic sages do not seem to have done so.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>