Sv: Re: The date of Sankara

[Ulrich T. Kragh]

Elliot M. Stern wrote:

> In Bhavya's presentation of the VedAntadarzana in the *MAdhyamakahhRdayakArikA*
> and its auto-commentary *TarkajvAlA* there is no reference to ZaMkara or his
> theories (MaNDana is also not mentioned), which indicates that ZaMkara is
> later than Bhavya (700-750 A.D.); or at least that ZaMkara had not become a
> famous VedAntin when Bhavya wrote his work; HaribhadrasUri, too, does not
> refer to ZaMkara or MaNDana.
>

Your dating of Bhavya as 700-750 AD is very unusual. Christian Lindtner gives c. 490-570 (in "Bhavya's Controversy with YogAcAra in the Appendix to PrajJApradIpa, chapter XXV", Tibetan and Buddhist Studies commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alxendar Csoma de Körös, ed. Louis Ligeti, vol. 2, Akademiai Kiado, Budapest 1984, pp. 77-97).

Similarly, David Seyfort Ruegg gives Bhavya's date as c. 500-570 ("The Literature of the Madhyamaka School of Philosophy in India", A History of Indian Literature vol. VII, ed. Jan Gonda, Otto Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1981, p. 61).

I therefore hardly think that we at all need to mention Bhavya and his works in the context of trying to date ZaMkara.

Sincerely,
Ulrich T. Kragh
University of Copenhagen