The date of Sankara

[Bijoy Misra]

I just finished reading Soundaryalahari by S'ankara for
a translation work I am doing for a yogi.  The language
in soundaryalahari is very similar to the jagannathashTakam
that is used in temple at Puri.  Some people had put
doubts earlier that the jagannathaashTakam was most likely
written by SriChaitanya since the AshTakam talks about Radha
and also that the temple did not exist in S'ankara's time.

After reading Soundaryalahari, the following thoughts
comes to mind.

1.  S'ankara is indeed the author of jagannathashTakam.
2.  Jagannatha did exist in some form in Puri in S'ankara's time.
3.  If S'ankara lived around 800AD, the Radha concept goes before
    Jayadeva.

If anyone has thought on these, may enlighten.

Best regards,

Bijoy Misra


On Sat, 22 Jul 2000, Elliot M. Stern wrote:

> In reply a previous message of mine, Vidyasankar Sundaresan has written:
>
>
>  "Perhaps I can fill in a little detail here, based on
>  personal communication with Kunjunni Raja from three years
>  ago. What is behind this 1991 position is the recognition
>  that many sections of zaMkara's brahmasUtra bhASya are
>  reproduced from earlier works, perhaps the often mentioned
>  vRtti(s). In which case, what is apparently a quote from the
>  bhASya could turn out to be a quote from earlier author(s),
>  and the zaMkara-maNDana question would have to be revisited"....
>
> To the best of my knowledge (I have looked both in bhAskara's
> brahmasUtrabhASyam and the available portion of his bhagavadgItAbhASyam),
> bhAskaraH neither quotes nor paraphrases the passage from which Kuppuswami
> Sastri says maNDanaH wove in two sentences (introduction to brahmasiddhi,
> xlvii), and which Allen Thrasher compares side to side in his dissertation
> (and on pages 123-124 of his "The dates of MaNDana Mizra and ZaMkara" WKSZ
> 23(1979) 117-139).
>
> I will grant that there is always the possibility that maNDanaH quoted from
> a pre-zaGkara vRttiH, and would gladly give up the conlusion that maNDanaH
> knew zaGkara's  work, if someone would only come forward with a convincing
> set of arguments. At this point, however, I believe Kuppusvami Sastri's
> position still prevails.
>