Adi Shankara A brief history
Raj Vedam, May 12, 2013
5/16/2013 1 Raj Vedam
Adi Shankara - Ancestry
• Born in Kalady in Kerala, a village on the
banks of the Purna river.
• Grandfather: Vidhyadhiraja
• Father: Shivaguru
• Mother: Aryamba or Vishista Devi
• Gothram: Atri
• Krishna Yajurvedi
• Nambudari Brahmana
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Kalady – Location on the map
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Kalady – closer look
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Brief Outline of Travels
• At age of 8, left Kerala toward North, met guru
Govinda Bhagavatpada on the banks of Narmada.
• After studies went to Kashi then to Badrinath.
• Met Kumarila in Prayag. Proceeded to Mahismati
on Narmada in MP to meet Madana Mishra.
• Went with disciples to Maharashtra,Gokarna, and
Kollur near Shimoga.
• Then began Dig-Vijaya (tour of conquest). Traveled
all over India. Went to Kashmir, Nepal, Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Vidarbha, Karnataka, Saurashtra
Girnar, Somnath, Prabhasa, Dwarka. Went up to
Kamboja (north of Kashmir?).
• Final days, went to Kedarnath-Badrinath 5/16/2013 5 Raj Vedam
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Some Works of Adi Shankara
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_Shankara_
bibliography
• Bhashyas (commentaries) on the
Upanishads, Bhagavatgita, Mahabharata.
• Prakarana Grantha (Thesis)
(Vivekachudamani, Upadesa sahasri,
Tattva Bodha, etc.)
• Stotras on Shiva, Vishnu, Devi, Ganesha
and Subrahmanya (e.g., Bhaja Govindam,
Bhavani Astakam, Dakshinamurthy
stotram, etc.)
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Dating Adi Shankara
• Sringeri records: 788CE-820CE
• Kanchi Peetam, Govardhana Matha,
Dwaraka Pitha: 509-477BCE
• Another tradition (astrologer BV Raman)
44BCE-12BCE
• 805CE–897CE (Venkiteswara) (92 years)
• Controversies exist till today on first two
dates.
• Made a critical study of both periods
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788CE-820CE (question)
• Sringeri records: 14 years into the reign of
Vikramaditya.
Vikramaditya 100BCE of Paramara Dynasty (Ujjain,
MP)
Chandragupta Vikramaditya(375CE); Fa-Hsien
visited this king
Vikramaditya I of Chalukyas (655CE-680CE)
Vikramaditya II of Chalukyas (733CE-746CE)
Vikramaditya V of Chalukyas (1008CE-1015CE)
Vikramaditya VI of Chalukyas (1076CE to 1126CE)
Dharmakirti
Madhavacharya 5/16/2013 9
Raj Vedam
788CE to 820CE (support)
• Disciple Sureshwaracharya quotes the
Buddhist Acharya Dharmakirti in his
Brihadaranyaka Bhashya.
• Dharmakirti: “professor” at Nalanda; quoted
by Huen-Tsang visited in 630CE.
• Dating Dharmakirti: Window 480CE – 660CE
• http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/dharmakiirti/
• Dating Nalanda: 400CE-1197CE
• Established by Gupta King Kumara Gupta,
destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193CE.
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788CE to 820CE (question)
• Actors:
• Dharmakirti
• Kumarila Bhat
• Madana Mishra
• Shankara debated Madana Mishra whose
guru was Kumarila Bhat, a student of
Dharmakirti. Dharmakirti died before
660CE. Thus Kumarila Bhat should have
lived till around 700CE. But Shankara
would not be born till 788CE! How could
he have debated Madana Mishra and
made him his disciple?
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788CE-820CE (support)
• Actors:
• Varahamihira (505CE-587CE)
• Vishnudharmottara Purana ~450CE
• Paitamaha Sidhanta ~80CE
• Adi Shankara quotes many puranas during
his commentaries, and refers to Vishnu
Dharmotara Purana, which in turn contains
"Paitamaha Sidhanta”.
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788CE-820CE (support)
• Actors
• Huen-Tsang (602CE-664CE)
• Bin Qasim (695CE-715CE)
• Raja Dahir (671CE-712CE)
• Shankara visited Somnath, but not Sindh
or Multan (Sun Temple - Prahalad).
• Huen-Tsang reports in 641CE that Dubal
and Sindh had many Shiva temples.
• Bin Qasim's conquest of Sindh was
complete after killing Raja Dahir in 712CE.
• Shankara visited Peshawar (fell to
Muslims in 988CE).
• Visited Kashmir (fell to Muslims in 1346) 5/16/2013 13 Raj Vedam
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Extent of Bin Qasim (Ummayid)
*Somnath
*Dwaraka
*Pushkar
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The World in 800CE
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509BCE-477BCE
• Govardhana Matha, Dwaraka Pitha and Kanchi
Peetham support this date.
• Based on hints in Bhashyas & astronom. data
• Main objection: Requires Buddha to be dated
earlier.
• http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/dating-
Sankara.html
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Dating Gauthama Buddha
• Chinese, Japanese, Korean Tradition: 949BCE or
878BCE.
• Northern Buddhism Tibeto-Mongolian,date: 881BCE
• Up to 5th Century CE, common date: 686BCE
• Southern Buddhism date: 543BCE
• From 17th century European scholars, trying to fix
Greek sources to Pali, converged towards later date,
about 500BCE
• In 19th and 20th centuries, 483BCE or 486BCE
• More recent opinions fix Buddha's death to 100 years
before Ashoka's coronation, to 368BCE.
• Alexander’s campaign in India: 326BCE.
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Later Date for Buddha
• Ashokavadana – “Narrative of Ashoka” –
in Buddhist literature: ~100CE text.
• States that Ashoka’s coronation happened
100 years after Buddha’s nirvana .
• Translated by Fa-Hian in 300CE
• Sri Lankan records say 218 years between
nirvana and coronation of Ashoka
• Who is right?
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Earlier Date: Upanishads & Buddha
• Alleged that Aitareya, Taittiriya, Kausitaki, Mundaka,
Prasna and Katha Upanishads show Buddhist influence -
so may have been composed after 300BCE .
• Equally possible influence other way around!
• Buddha refers to Upanishads:
http://www.dhammaweb.net/Tipitaka/read.php?id=13
• From Tevijja Sutta, part of Pali Canon:
"Right and wrong paths, Reverend Gotama. There are so
many kinds of Brahmins who teach different paths: the
Addhariya, the Tittiriya, the Chandoka, the Chandava, the
Brahmacariya to Brahmins - do all these ways lead to
union with Brahma? …”
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Dating Upanishads
Author Range(BCE) Methods
Tilak 6000-200 Astronomical
BVK Aiyer 2300-2000 Astronomical
Max Muller 1000-800 Linguistic
Ranade 1200-600 Linguistic, Ideological
Radhakrishnan 800-600 Ideological
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Dating Gauthama Buddha
• http://indology.info/papers/cousins/node1/
• http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/fil
es/2010/05/prebish-article.pdf
• http://www.indologie.uni-
muenchen.de/dokumente/publ_hartmann/j
uh_buddha_date.pdf
• http://www.thezensite.com/ZenEssays/Hist
oricalZen/dating_the_Buddha.pdf
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509BCE- 477BCE (support)
• Adi Shankara is silent about Islam.
• In 788CE, would have been aware of Arab
traders in Kerala
• Would have heard of Cheraman Perumal
who converted to Islam.
• Would have heard of destruction of
temples in Sindh and Multan.
• Why did he not mention Islam at all?
• He labored to protect Hinduism against
Buddhism, but no mention of the
destructive Islam?
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The World in 1000BCE
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Upanishads
Buddha Adi
Shankara
Alexander Ashoka
Upanishads
Buddha,
Upanishads
Alexander
Ashoka
Adi Shankara
Older Date Chronology
Later Date Chronology
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