More on indian history and the date of Shankara

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

I was going through a trunk of old documents and came across a letter from Dr. Richard Thompson (Sadaputa) that mentioned some interesting and relevant points regarding the history of India. Here is an excerpt:

 

At present, indologists accept the identification of Sandrokottus of the Greek historians with Chandragupta Maurya. This identification makes Chandragupta Maurya a contemporary of Alexander the Great, who invaded India in 326 B.C. Dates in early Indian history are determined by working forwards and backwards from this date.

 

According to the Bhagavatam, 12th Canto, about 1,500 years elapsed from the time of king Parikshit to Chandragupta Maurya (and one verse would make this about 1,000 years). If Kaliyuga began in 3102 B.C., then Chandragupta Maurya must have lived in about 3100 - 1500 = 1600 B.C. There is a great discrepancy between this date and 326 B.C.

 

Some Indian scholars such as Kota venkatachelam have argued that Sandrakottus should be identified with Chandragupta I of the Gupta dynasty, which is presently accepted by most scholars as beginning in 319 A.D. By doing this, Venkatachelam is able to construct a chronology that agrees with the Puranas and the traditional date of Kali yuga. However, he has to challenge many accepted conclusions of modern indologists.

Regarding the date of Shankaracharya, he mentions later in the letter:

 

Kulkarni makes the following points in favor of a date [for Adi Shankara] of 509 B.C.:

 

(a) Kulkarni says that the Brihat Shankara Vijaya of Citsukhacharya (Vishnusharma) gives 509 B.C.l as Shankara's birth date.

 

(b) M.R. Bodas in his 'shankaracharya va tyancha sampradaya' (published in 1923) gives Chitsukhacharya's period as 514-416 B.C.

 

© Prof. Upadhyaya "who claims to have seen Brihat Shankara Vijaya" has given 509 B.C. as Shankara's birth date in his Hindi book 'Sri Shankaracharya' (published in 1950). Note: If Upadhyaya "claims to have seen Brihat Shankara Vijaya," then it appears that this book is not available.

 

(d) Kulkarni says that the late Narayana Shastri possessed a manuscript of Brihat Shankara Vijaya. Shastri wrote 'acharya kala' (Age of Shankara), in which he said that Shankara's birth date was given as Yudhisthira shaka 2631 = 509 B.C.

 

(e) The same Narayana Shastri had a manuscript of 'Pracina Shankara Vijaya' by Anandagiri. This gave Kali 2593 = 509 B.C. (using 3102-2593=509).

 

(f) Verse 4-20 of Vyasacaliya (refering to Vyasacala Mahadeva, 54th pontiff of Kanchi Matha) gives Kali 2593 as Shankara's birth date.

 

(g) Dr. Antarkar's unpublished thesis (available in Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Pune) says more about all this.

 

(h) K. Krishnamachari in his History of Sanskrit Literature has referred to Shankarendra Vilasa by Vakpati Bhatt, a Kashmiri pandit. This is a biography of Dhir-Shankarendra Saraswati, the 38th acharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Pitha. This person was born in 788 A.D., and thus Adi Shankaracharya could not have been born at this time.

 

(i) Kulkarni says that Brihat Shankara Vijaya (which is not available) gives the founding dates of Dvaraka, Jagannathpuri, Jyotir, and Sringeri Mathas as 490, 484, 485, and 483 B.C.

 

(j) Kulkarni says that old records in the possession of Swami Madhavatirtha, the 74th Acharya of Dvaraka Pitha, state that Shankara was born in Yudhisthira Shaka 2631 [509 B.C.].

 

(k) In Vimarsha, a recent publication of Dvaraka Pitha, the same thing is stated.

 

(l) Old records of Govardhana Matha, available in the library at Adyar (Madras) say that Shankara established a matha at Jagannatha Puri in Yudhisthira Shaka 2655 = 484 B.C. (This takes the beginning of Yuddhisthira Shaka to be 3139 B.C.)

 

(m) Genealogical lists from Sringeri Matha give 44 B.C. as Shankara's date. (Kulkarni suggests that this is based on confusing traditional Yudhisthira Shaka with Jain Yudhisthira Shaka, which begins 468 years later. This would give 44 + 468 = 512 B.C. for Shankara. In any case, 44 B.C. is much earlier than 788 A.D.)

 

(n) Records of Shankeshvara Matha (in Kolhapur District, Maharshtra) give Yudhisthira Shaka 2122 as birth date of Shankara. This gives 1017 B.C., or 549 B.C. if the above error involving the Jain Yudhisthira Shaka was made.

 

(o) Kulkarni says that Kanchi Matha genealogy gives 509 B.C. for Shankara.

 

(p) Rajataragini of Kalhana says that the Kashmiri king Gopaditya founded agraharas and built temples of Jyestheswara and Shankaracharya. This king is given a date of 417-357 B.C.

 

(q) In vol. XIII of Indian Antiquary (p 411), it is said that Shankara visited Nepal in 487 B.C. when Vrishadeo Varma was ruling there.

If I get more time I will post more from the letter. The purpose of his letter was not to establish this particular date, but to present a summary of topics for later research.

 

[shvu]

 

A couple of points,

 

According to the Bhagavatam, 12th Canto, about 1,500 years elapsed from the time of king Parikshit to Chandragupta Maurya (and one verse would make this about 1,000 years).

Is anyone aware of Chandragupta Maurya being mentioned in the Bhagavatam? I don't remember reading about him anywhere.

 

(a) Kulkarni says that the Brihat Shankara Vijaya of Citsukhacharya (Vishnusharma) gives 509 B.C.l as Shankara's birth date.

The Brihat Shankara Vijaya and Prachina Shankara Vijaya are both not in existence.

 

© Prof. Upadhyaya "who claims to have seen Brihat Shankara Vijaya" has given 509 B.C. as Shankara's birth date in his Hindi book 'Sri Shankaracharya' (published in 1950). Note: If Upadhyaya "claims to have seen Brihat Shankara Vijaya," then it appears that this book is not available.

Certainly no one else seems to have seen it.

 

(i) Kulkarni says that Brihat Shankara Vijaya (which is not available) gives the founding dates of Dvaraka, Jagannathpuri, Jyotir, and Sringeri Mathas as 490, 484, 485, and 483 B.C.

I wonder how he got hold of this info, considering that this Vijaya is no longer available?

 

(m) Genealogical lists from Sringeri Matha give 44 B.C. as Shankara's date.

As it turns out, they did not. All they stated was their records say that he was born in the 14th year of Vikramaditya's reign. This was mapped to the 44 bc Vkramaditya. And the funny thing is the same records show his immmediate disciples dates as 800 AD! The Math explicitly clarified that they never gave a date to Shankara.

 

Among the 4 Maths, it is only Sringeri which has had an unbroken chain of Shankaras. The other Maths have all had periods with no presiding Shankaracharya. That is probably because of all the invasions and upheavals in the North.

 

Biography today means the life story of a person, which did not mean the same to our ancestors. Perhaps the idea was, if there are no miracles who will be interested in reading biographies? Anyway adding miracles at regular intervals was a mandatory requirement. And they had no sense of chronology either. Gaudapada who was Shankara's Guru's guru is supposed to be the disciple of Shuka! Even if Shuka was a real life character, there is simply no way, Gaudapada could have written about Madhyamika Buddhism and at the same time be Shukha's disciple.

 

Cheers

 

[animesh]

Shvu,

Chandragupt Maurya is mentioned in Bhagwatam.

[shvu]

 

That is very interesting. Can you give tell me where?

 

Cheers

 

[sushil_kanoria]

in the last canto.

[shvu]

 

I just checked up the Bhagavatam and found that 12.1.11 and 12.1.12 talk about Chanakya, Chandragupta and Ashoka !

 

I did not calculate their periods wrt to the Kali-yuga, but if it is 1000 years as said above, then the beginning of Kali-yuga will not be 3102 bc. Ashoka's date is reliably known from his inscriptions, especially the mention about the other kings in the world during his time [viz., Ptolemy of Egypt]. It will be around 1500 BC which will make a lot of sense. The 3102 BC date has no basis in literature and the only point in it's favor is that the planetary positions were as described in the Hari-vamsha [according to some]. But interestingly these positions repeat themselves periodically and the next repetition was around 1500 BC, if I remember right. This also clicks with the Historical dates.

 

Cheers