The date of Sankara

[N. Ganesan]

K. Raja's ALB paper concludes that Adi Sankara (800 CE) date
mainly depends on taking vAcaspatimizra to have lived around
841 CE.

K. Kunjunni Raja, On the date of "SaMkarAcArya and allied problems,
ALB, 1963, v. 24
"Conclusion:
A detailed examination of all the evidence leads us to the
following conclusion. "SaMkara is later than BhartRhari,
DiGnAga, GauDapAda, DharmakIrti and KumArila and cannot
be earlier than A.D. 650. Since VAcaspati wrote one of
his works in A.D. 841, and since he is later than
"SaMkara by one or two generations, "SaMkara has to be
placed before A.D. 800. The absence of any reference to
the philosophical system of "SaMkara in the works of
"SAntarakSita and KamalazIla, even when they discuss an
AdvaitavAda under the heading of UpaniSadvAda, and also
in the work of HaribhadrasUri shows that "SaMkara's
theories had not spread by the second half of the eigth
century. Hence the works of "SaMkara must have been
composed towards the close of the eigth century A.D."

However, in a note to a query about the date of vAcaspati,
Dr. Birgit Kellner informed me: (Re: vAcaspatimizra, 5 Jan 2000)

"[..](3) BhAsarvajJa as a younger contemporary of VAcaspati, both
of whom can be placed around the middle of the 10th century
*earliest*.  At the same time, the date of Udayana features as a
terminus ante quem  for VAcaspati - since Udayana's LakSaNAvalI was
composed 984/5 (Zaka 906), and since Udayana (a) wrote a commentary
on VAcaspati's NyAyavArttikatAtparyaTIkA and (b) Udayana defends
VAcaspatimiZra against JJAnaZrImitra (in combination with a few other
factors, see Srinivasan). Hence, a dating of VAcaspati, or, to be
more accurate, his NyAya works in the latter half of the 10th century
seems plausible.

[There is also the issue of the NyAyasUcInibandha, attributed to
VAcaspati and dated 898. Srinivasan doubts the authorship of
VAcaspati. Certain scholars interpret this as a Vikrama-date = 841
C.E. Slaje thinks that *if* the NSN is a work of V., then the date
must belong to the Zaka-era = 976/7 C.E.]"

It is often claimed in this list that Kunjunni Raja supports
a date of 800 CE for Adi Sankara. But, this 800 date is
arrived at by taking vAcaspati's as 841. If Slaje and Srinivasan
are right about the 976 CE date for vAcaspati, then Adi Sankara
date must also correspondingly brought forward by atleast
a century. Is it not?

Already I referred to the earliest mention of Adi Sankara's work
in a Chola inscription of 1065 AD. Available inscriptions
relating to Sankara and a comparative method used to date the
Bhakti saints like Srivaishnava Alvars and Shaivaite Nayanmars
also support a  date more like 900 CE rather than the
date (788-820 CE) usually assigned for Adi Sankaracharya
(proposed in the 19th century by Tiele, K. B. Pathak).

Regards,
N. Ganesan


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