Adi Shankara. A brief history. Raj Vedam, May 12, /16/2013 Raj Vedam

Transcription

1 Adi Shankara A brief history Raj Vedam, May 12,

2 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 2

3 Kalady Location on the map 3

4 Kalady closer look 4

5 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

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7 Some Works of 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.) 7

8 Dating Adi Shankara Sringeri records: 788CE-820CE Kanchi Peetam, Govardhana Matha, Dwaraka Pitha: BCE 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 8

9 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 5/16/2013 Raj Vedam Madhavacharya 9

10 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 Dating Nalanda: 400CE-1197CE Established by Gupta King Kumara Gupta, destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji in 1193CE. 10

11 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? 11

12 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. 12

13 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). 5/16/2013 Visited Raj Kashmir Vedam (fell to Muslims in 1346)

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15 Extent of Bin Qasim (Ummayid) *Pushkar *Dwaraka *Somnath 15

16 The World in 800CE 16

17 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. Sankara.html 17

18 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. 18

19 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? 19

20 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: 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? 20

21 Dating Upanishads Author Range(BCE) Methods Tilak Astronomical BVK Aiyer Astronomical Max Muller Linguistic Ranade Linguistic, Ideological Radhakrishnan Ideological 21

22 Dating Gauthama Buddha es/2010/05/prebish-article.pdf uh_buddha_date.pdf oricalzen/dating_the_buddha.pdf 22

23 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? 23

24 The World in 1000BCE 24

25 Older Date Chronology Upanishads Buddha Adi Shankara Alexander Ashoka Later Date Chronology Upanishads Buddha, Upanishads Alexander Ashoka Adi Shankara 25