On zankara's date - 2 (The view of Dvaraka Math)

[Vishal Agarwal]

Vidyasankar said:
In a letter to Swami Tapasyananda of the Ramakrishna Mission (reproduced in
his translation of the mAdhavIya Sankaravijayam), the Sringeri Matha has
officially declined to attach a firm date to this tradition. However,
contemporary Matha publications often give the 788-820 CE dates that have
generally come to be accepted in India.
VA comments: During the '12th Centenary' celebrations in 1988, Swami
Svarupanand Sarasvati of Dvaraka Matha delivered a pravachana near my home
in Delhi where he categorically said that he does not accept 788 C.E. as the
birth year of Bhagvatpada. Besides the typical arguments in favor of the 6th
Cent. B.C.E date (Copper place of Sudhanva etc., a date that he says he
accepts, he remarked that although Bhagvatpada has lambasted all the sects
of India in his writings, it is strange that he chose to remain silent about
the doctrines of St. Thomas and his follower Christians although the regions
around Kaladi is intimately related to them. This is just FYI, not to
suggest my acceptance of the earlier date (which is untenable in my
opinion).
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Vidyasankar stated: Although there have been many gRhastha authors in the
tradition, the study of vedAnta is intimately associated with saMnyAsa. One
alternative name for bAdarAyaNa's brahma-sUtra is bhikshu-sUtra.
VA comments: Are you referring to the Bhikshu sutras of Karmanda and
Parasharya mentioned in the Ashtadhyayi of Panini? While Veda Vyasa himself
is called Parasharya, the Mahabharata also states that Samkhyacharya
Panchasikha was also of Parashara Gotra. In fact, numerous Jaina, Buddhist
etc, sources describe the followers of Panchasikha as 'Parasharya' Bhikhsu.
(See for instance the Tamil epic Neelakesi, where the follower of Samkhya is
'Parashara'). There is a tradition going back to atleast 7 centuries in
which even the words "Brahmasutrapadascaiva yuktimad...." of Gita are
considered referring to Samkhyasutras (See the Tatparyachandrika of Sri
Vedanta Desika--concluding remaks, where he quotes the opinion of a
Purvacharya who is YadavaPrakasha of 11th Cent. in my opinion). Of course,
the Vedantasutras themselves are called 'Bhikshusutras' in later literature
too (do not recall references off-hand)

Best wishes

Vishal
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