manuscript in question, either from defects in the original or
translation, presents many palpable errors, and cannot consequently be
depended upon. The weight of authority therefore is altogether in
favour of an antiquity of about ten centuries, and I am disposed to
adopt this estimate of Sankara's date, and to place him in the end of
the eighth and beginning of the ninth century of the Christian era."
We will add a few more authorities to Mr. Wilson's list before
proceeding to comment on the foregoing passage.
In a work called "The Biographical Sketches of Eminent Hindu Authors,"
published at Bombay in 1860 by Janardan Ramchenderjee, it is stated that
Sankara lived 2,500 years ago, and that, in the opinion of some people,
2,200 years ago. The records of the Combaconum Matham give a list of
nearly 66 Mathadhipatis from Sankara down to the present time, and show
that he lived more than 2,000 years ago.
The Kudali Matham referred to by Mr. Wilson, which is a branch of the
Sringeri Matham, gives the same date as the latter Matham, their
traditions being identical. Their calculation can safely be relied upon
as far as it is supported by the dates given on the places of Samadhi
(something like a tomb) of the successive Gurus of the Sringeri Matham;
and it leads us to the commencement of the Christian era.
No definite information is given by Mr. Wilson regarding the nature,
origin, or reliability of the accounts which place Sankara in the third
or fourth century of the Christian era or at its commencement; nor does
it clearly appear that the history of the kings of Konga referred to
unmistakably alludes to the very first Sancharacharya. These traditions
are evidently opposed to the conclusion arrived at by Mr. Wilson, and it
does not appear on what grounds their testimony is discredited by him.
Mr. Wilson is clearly wrong in stating that an antiquity of 1,600 years
is attributed to Sankara by the Sringeri Matham. We have already
referred to the account of the Sringeri Matham, and it is precisely
similar to the account given by the Kudali Brahmins. We have ascertained
that it is so from the agent of the Sringeri Matham at Madras, who has
recently published the list of teachers preserved at the said Matham
with the dates assigned to them. And further, we are unable to see which
"common tradition" makes Sankara "about 1,200 years old." As far as our
knowledge goes there is no such common tradition in India. The majority
of people in Southern India have, up to this time, been relying on the
Sringeri account, and in Northern India there seems to be no common
tradition. We have but a mass of contradictory accounts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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