[Advaita-l] BhAmAti vs VivAraNa

[Aditya Kumar]

 Namaste,
Thanks for sharing excerpts from Shankara Vijaya. This suggests that, as per Vidyaranya, Vachaspati was a reincarnation of Sureshvaracharya. As per the same Shankara Vijaya, Mandana Mishra is none other than Sureshvaracharya. It is also interesting that Vidyaranya himself follows a distinct sub-school which is a major offshoot of the the Vivarana school. The Vivarana school itself does not have a single source/source-book unlike the Bhamati school. Not just that, Vivarana school has many variations and all those are accepted to be true.
I have come across some old publications of Sringeri which was authored by a Sringeri priest, a well known scholar I believe Narsimha Sharma. It is a very small book in Kannada and it is called 'Vedanta Maryada'. In that book, he clearly stands by the Vivarana school, while not making it explicit. I also got a chance to pose a couple of questions to Bharathi teertha swamiji. I asked him if Eka jiva vada and drishti-srishti-vada are legitimate? He answered in the affirmative. Both these vadas take root in the Vivarana school. So it is clear that the Sringeri tradition is following Vivarana school although someone told me that they study the Bhamati. However, this in itself does not make Vivarana legitimate in my humble opinion. Even people at Sringeri are only humans. 
Vivarana is more popular because it is endorsed by new age vedantins and they publish and advertise their books more. There is not a single Hindu perhaps who hasn't read something great about Vivekananda and most of them believe he was a great Yogi. But he was very critical of Shankara and at the same time, praised Buddha. 
Almost all of them who claim to be Advaitins today follow Vivarana school. So Vivarana is popular in that sense. However, it is the Bhamati which is more consistent than the Vivarana school. 
    On Sunday, 22 July, 2018, 5:11:15 PM IST, Dev Babu via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:  
 
 Namaste Elite Scholars
My doubt:  which one of this school is more popular?
In MAdhaviya Sankara Vijayam 13th Sarga: - Shloka 53, Sankara gave ShApam
that "Any Varttikam that has been initiated against the Guru;s Wishes will
not gain prominence - hence, PadmapAdachArya's  Varttikam got burnt and
only Panca Padiks remains.

Also, Sankara Blesses Suresvaracharya in Shloka 73, that " Thou shall be
born again as VAchaspati and you will carry out a Vishesha commentary to my
BhAshya - which is BhAmati, and that will shine forth until Pralayam.

So, By taking above as PramAnam, is not BhAmati more popular?

Which one of the above is held as Authoritative by Our Revered Sringeri
Acharyals?

Much appreciate your views.

Harih Om

Babu
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