On zankara's date - 2

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In the period between the founding of the pArttivacEkarapuram college in the
second half of the 9th century and the grant to the eNNAyiram college in the
first half of 11th century, vedAnta has come to be included as a subject of
study in the Sanskrit Colleges in Tamilnadu/Kerala. I think the change was
probably due to zankara's influence.

According to the advaita web site, "The Sringeri maTha's record states that
Sankara was born in the 14th year of the reign of vikramAditya. The record
does not give any clue about the identity of this king." On the basis of the
identification of this vikramAditya with one of the two Chalukya kings,
vikramAditya I and vikramAditya II, some scholars seem to have argued for a
700 AD date. (But we find later vikramAdityas  V and VI of the  Chalukyas of
Kalyani in the 11th century. This means there were probably two other
vikramAdityas in the intervening centuries.) But if we suppose that  the
Sringeri tradition is based on information related to kings in Kerala and not
Karnataka, we get some interesting results.

The south Kerala/Tamilnadu Ay king karunantaTakkan2's successor was called
vikramAditya varaguNa.  It is not known when exactly he began his rule. The
name suggests that he must have been a contemporary of his Pandyan overlord
varaguNa II who ruled between 862-880 AD. This means that if we place zankara
in the second half of the 9th century, then we can explain the absence of
vedAntic studies at the colleges at kAntalUrccAlai and pArttivacekarapuram.
It will also explain  the king's name vikramAditya. It will make zankara a
contemporary of mANikkavAcakar. Then mANikkavAcakar's reference to "mAyAvAda,
the hurricane that blew and roared" might refer to zankara's efforts.
mANikkavAcakar might have outlived zankara.

If there are any confirmed absolute dates for post-zankaran scholars that
will conflict with this analysis, then this may have to be revised.

By the way, why was the study of vedAnta less popular than the study of
mImAMsA among the Tamilnadu/Kerala brahmins? Did buddhism dominate the
tradition of philosophical speculation in the Tamil region?

Regards
S. Palaniappan