[Advaita-l] [advaitin] The Bhashyas of Adi Shankara

[Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan]

On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 1:30 AM, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Pathak claims this is Adi Shankara only. If Sri Sunil wants to claim the
> manuscript refers to a navashankara then so be it - however that is his
> opinion, not Pathak's.
>
> Even then, one should note that the manuscript says that the very same
> Shankara (the one that Sri Sunil claims is Nava Shankara) is also the
> author of the shaAriraka bhAshya - which is the brahmasUtra bhAshya. So if
> Sri Sunil insists that this person is Nava Shankara here, who is different
> from Adi Shankara, then he must be prepared to admit, it is Nava Shankara
> that wrote the Brahma sUtra bhAshya also.
>
> The other reason why the mss. must refer to Adi Shankara only, is that the
> guru parampara given there is from Shiva onwards, down to Gaudapada,
> GovindapAda and Shankara. If Nava Shankara was meant, why would it stop at
> GovindapAda sishya Shankara, it would go all the way to Nava Shankara.
> Failing which, it would at least give the immediate guru of Nava Shankara.
> But it apparently does not, for Pathak does not mention it.
>

Exactly! If this is supposedly abhinava shankara, according to pathak, he

a. wrote the brahma-sutra-bhashya
b. was the person in the line
shiva-vishnu-brahmA-vashiShTha-shakti-parAshara-vyAsa-shuka-gauDapAda-govinda-guru
(traditional line as per regular lists)

where is this supposed adi-shankara, different from this supposed
nava-shankara in the line? Before shiva? And what was his role - wrote no
bhAshyas? In any case, Venkatraghavan is completely correct, Pathak is not
talking about any nava-shankara, he is talking about shankara and agrees
with the 7 - 9th century dates.

Rama