[Advaita-l] [advaitin] 'Uncharitable remarks on the towering 'Adi Shankara' must STOP.

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear Subbuji,

Adi Shankara was one of the greatest personalities we had in India, and
there is not the slightest doubt in that. If there is any misconception
about Adi Shankara among many people, It is the Advaitins who should be
blamed for that. Adi Shankara lived only 32 years and during his lifetime
he established the four amnaya - mutts  with his four disciples as the
mathdhipatis, as follows:

He established the *1st mutt ar Dwaraka* with Shri Vishvarupa as the head.
A few years later
he established the *2nd mutt at Badari*, with Shri Totaka as the head.
Next, he established the *3rd mutt at Puri*  with Shri Padmapada as the
head. The *4th mutt at Shringeri* was established by him at the confluence
of  Tunga and Bhadra in Kudali Shringeri in the Shimoga district of
Karnataka, with Shri Prithvidhara or Hastamalaka as the head. Many
centuries later, Swami Vidyatirtha moved to a new mutt in Shringeri on the
bank of the river Tunga in the Chikkamagaluru district, with the financial
and material help from  his disciple-king the Vijayanagara kingdom.

After establshing the  Shringeri mutt, he stayed there to complete his
bhashya on the Lalita Trishati, as well as the bhashya "Hastamalkiya" and
then he moved to Kanchipuram and the first thing he did  was to install the
Shri Chakra in the temple of Kamakshi or  Lalita Devi in order to pacify
the Ugra- Vigraha there. He spent the rest of his life in Kanchipuram at
the feet of Devi Kamakshi.

During the time of ~four years at Kanchipuram,  he he found a very
intelligent and  spiritually inclined boy as shishya, and he started
training him up, with a view to establishing a mutt at Kanchipuram with the
young shishya as the head, As his time was short he called Shri Vishvaroopa
or Shri Sureshvaracharya from Dwarka to Kanchipuram for completing the
training of the young shishya and eventually to install him as the
Mathadhipati of the *5th mutt at Kanchipuram*  with the blessings of Adi
Shankaracharya.

The above details on the five mutts are generally known to the scholars.
Four out of the five mutts consistently vouch for the 6th century BCE date
of Adi Shankara, but the Shringeri mutt in the Chikkamagaaluru district is
confused about the date of the date of Adi Shankaracharya. Till about ~80
years ago, the Sringeri math claimed that Adi Shankara was born in the 1st
century BCE, but presently they are adhering to a 8th century date, which
is absolutely not correct. The biography of Adi Shankara by Shri Vidyaratna
shows that Adi Shankara was contemporary of King Vikramaditya, which fact
endorses the 6th century BCE date only. It is unfortunate that the
Shringeri Mutt in the Chikkamagaluru district  is unable to open their
eyes.

A few years ago I talked to Shri Vidyshankar Sundareshan (who is fully
trusted by the management of the Shringeri mutt in the Chikkamagaluru
district) and brought to his notice the fact that Madhaviya Shankara vijaya
endorses the fact that Adi Shanka was a contemporary of king Vikramaditya.
Unfortunately immediately after that Shri Vidyashanka fell ill and left for
Chennai, as I received an email reply from his wife. If Shri Vidyashankar
would have tried to open the eyes of the managemant of the Shringeri mutt
in the Chikkamagaluru district, then there can be a good chance of success.

Regards,
Sunil KB





On Thu, Jan 5, 2023 at 2:11 AM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
wrote:

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