[Advaita-l] Article on Shankaracharya

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Vineetji,

You said :

<Most historians agree that Adi Shankaracharya lived in the 8th century CE,
or 1,200 years ago, 1,300 years after the Buddha. *(P.S. **three
monasteries among the four set up by Shankaracharya – Dwaraka, Puri and
Kanchi – will say it is 509 BC. The fourth Sringeri monastery will say 44
BC)*>

This is a very general statement and does not befit a scholarly forum. Scholars need proofs. . There are many historical leads such as the date of king Amaruka, that of king Sudhanva as well as of king Purnavarman, the date of Dharmapala, the teacher at Nalanda, who was a contemporary of Dharmakirti, date of the Malava king Vikramaditya, who was a contemporary of king  Purnavarman, etc. 

Moreover Sri Sureshvaracharya has been  claimed to be one of  the  earliest mathadhipatis by the Dwarka math, the Sringeri math, the Kudali-Sringeri math and also by the Kanchi Kamakoti math.

All these have to be sorted out with patience and I am sure that all the claims of these mathas are their side of the truth and with patience all these can be sorted out, provided there is sincere will and open mind (i.e., no pre-conditioned or biased attitude)..to get the truth. Presently most of the scholars have their cup full with their own ideas and cannot accommodate other's views. 

Regards,
Sunil KB


--------------------------------------------
On Sat, 11/26/16, Vineet Menon via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Article on Shankaracharya
 To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 Date: Saturday, November 26, 2016, 10:02 AM
 
 NakaskAra,
 
 As usual, Devdutt under heavy
 doses of Wendy Doniger writes something which
 looks good superficialy, but on deeper
 inspection is full of
 secular/western
 agenda.
 
 His commentaries
 and monographs were so brilliant that Vyasa, the mythical
 organiser of the Vedas, himself extended his
 life by another 16 years to
 spread his ideas
 to the world.
 
 But then,
 Mandana’s wife, Ubhaya Bharati, playfully challenged him
 to
 knowledge of erotics (kama-shastra). When
 the celibate Shankara pleaded
 ignorance, the
 lady asked him how he could claim to have understood the
 world without experiencing sensual pleasure and
 emotional intimacy. What
 followed is
 shrouded in mystery, and edited by latter-day puritans.
 Some people argue that this shows the influence
 of Buddhism on Vedism,
 causing Hindu
 supremacists to bristle.
 
 Like any ancient or medieval figure of Indian
 history, it is difficult to
 separate fact
 from fiction about Shankara’s life. Scholars are not
 sure
 which of his literary works are
 authentically his, and which are attributed
 to him to gain legitimacy or popularity.
 Depending on what one cherry
 picks, Shankara
 can be turned into an incarnation of Shiva, a champion of
 Hinduism who drove out Buddhists, a prodigious
 and prolific logician and
 poet, a savarna
 casteist Hindu, or a reconciler of paradoxes.
 
 This obsession of defeating
 intellectuals in debates has more to do with
 indulging the ego than expanding knowledge.
 
 Most historians agree that Adi
 Shankaracharya lived in the 8th century CE,
 or 1,200 years ago, 1,300 years after the
 Buddha. *(P.S. **three
 monasteries among the
 four set up by Shankaracharya – Dwaraka, Puri and
 Kanchi – will say it is 509 BC. The fourth
 Sringeri monastery will say 44
 BC)*
 
 
 On 26
 November 2016 at 22:43, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
 advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 wrote:
 
 > http://scroll.in/article/816610/how-adi-shankaracharya-
 >
 united-a-fragmented-land-with-philosophy-poetry-and-pilgrimage
 >
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