Adi Shankara: Encyclopedia II - Adi Shankara - Shankara's dates

Adi Shankara - Shankara's dates

All modern scholars do not agree to the dates in the 8th century, though it has proved controversial to reach agreement on Shankara's precise dates of birth or death. The protagonists of the 8th century CE cite the quoting of Dharmakirti,a Buddhist scholar of the 7th century CE, in the Brahmasutra Bhashya. According to other scholars the Brahmasutra Bhashya was not a work of Adi Sankaracharya because while commenting on a verse in Bhagavad Gita, where there is reference to Brahmasutra, Adi Sankara in his Bhagavad Gita Bhashya refers to a verse of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad and not of Brahmasutra. Brahmasutra Bhashya was most probably composed by Abhinava Sankara. Again some other scholars believe that Several authors have contributed to the Brahmasutra Bhashya. Some religious institutions dedicated to Shankara, such as Shankara mathams, however, ascribe much earlier dates to him. If these dates were true, they would require moving back the date of Buddha (which used to serve as an anchor for modern academic history of India). Modern Scholars think that Max Muller and Sir William Jones wrongly identified Sandrocottus as Chandragupta Maurya whereas it was Chandragupta of the Gupta dynasty, who was Sandrcottus. Thus Buddha's date gets moved back by more than 1200 years.

Of the major Shankara Mathams active today, the Kanchi, Dwaraka, and Puri ascribe the dates 509–477 BCE to Shankara. The Sringeri Peetham, on the other hand, accepts the 788–820 CE dates. (See also below.)

According to Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati's biography of Shankara, published in his book Sannyasa Darshan, Shankara was born in Kalady, Kerala, in 686, and attained mahasamadhi at Kedarnath, Uttaranchal, in 718.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Shankara's dates", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki