[Advaita-l] Dashashloki of Sankara

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, Mar 28, 2017 at 7:28 PM, Nirnajan Saha via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear List,
> Namaste!
> Could some of you please shed light on, with concrete references--(i)if
> Sankara was the author of the Dashashloki, (ii) distinction between the
> Śaṅkara known through Mādhava'snarratives and the historical person.
> While we don't find any problem in accepting its authorship to Sankara,
> people raise doubt as well.
>

At the beginning of the commentary to the Dashasloki, Sri Madhusudana
Saraswati says in his 'Siddhantabindu':

इह खलु साक्षात्परम्परया वा सर्वान्  जीवान् समुद्दिधीर्षुः भगवान् शङ्करः
अनात्मभ्यः विवेकेन आत्मानं नित्यशुद्धबुद्धमुक्तस्वभावं संक्षेपेण बोधयितुं
दशश्लोकीं प्रणिनाय ।

With a view to redeem all jīva-s directly or indirectly from samsāra,
Bhagavan Shankara composed this work 'Dashashloki' thereby discriminating
the Self that is of the nature of being ever pure, consciousness,
ever-liberated, from the not-self, giving that knowledge in a concise
manner.

Apart from the above direct mention of the authorship and the work,
Madhusudana Saraswati has even invoked the blessings of Shankaracharya in
his first invocatory verse:

श्रीशंकराचार्यनवावतारं विश्वेश्वरं विश्वगुरुं प्रणम्य ।
वेदान्तशास्त्रश्रवणालसानां बोधाय कुर्वे कमपि प्रयत्नम् ॥

At the end of the work, MS composes some verses, and the first among them
is:

न स्तौमि तं व्यासमशेषमर्थं समग्रसूत्रैरपि यो बबन्ध ।
विनापि तैस्सङ्रथिताखिलार्थं तं शंकरं नौमि सुरेश्वरं च ॥

Here MS bows to Shankara the sutrakara and Sureshvara.

Thus, we have the authority of Madhusudana Saraswati on Shankara's
authorship of the work.

In the same way, Amalananda, 13CE, has authenticated the Prapanchasāra as
that of Shankara.

Vidyaranya has mentioned in the Panchadashi that the Vākyavritti is that of
Shankara.

Of course, Sureshwara himself has stated that Upadeshasahasri is that of
Shankara.

MS has also cited a line in his Gūḍhārthadīpikā from the Vishnuṣaṭpadī
stotram popularly said to be of Shankara, though without mentioning his
name.

regards
vs


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