Aryans and Dravidians

[Mani Varadarajan]

Srinivas Sunder writes:
> For instance, I have been told that Adi Sankara was not an 8th Century AD
> figure as is conventionally believed, but actually a 5th Century BC person.
> This is on account of the fact that the baseline for dating Indian historical 
> events is the date of Alexander's incursion (invasion?) into India, which was
> 323 BC or thereabouts, with the Maurya dynasty and all subsequent historical
> events and figures being dated from then onwards. 

This theory has been propounded mainly by the Kanchi Kamakoti Sankara
Mutt, mostly to prove their antiquity compared to the four 
"canonical" mutts established by Sankara.

The 5th Century BC date of Sankara has been effectively refuted by
many people.  The most available analysis is the one contained in
the introduction to "Sankara Digvijaya -- The Traditional Life of
Sri Sankaracharya", translated by Swami Tapasyananda of the Madras
Ramakrishna Math.

Proponents of the Sringeri Sankara Math (Karnataka state) have also
been very vigorous in combating the rewriting of history by the 
5th Century BC advocates, since such a theory directly affects 
the history of their mutt as well.

Mani