The date of Sankara

[Bijoy Misra]

On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Valerie J Roebuck wrote:

> Bijoy Misra writes:
>
> >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.
>
> The ascription of SaundaryalaharI to Adi S'ankara is itself rather
> doubtful, since it is not noted before about 14th century. The only
> reference to a poet within the text itself is quite ambiguous: to a
> "DraviDa infant" who becomes the best-loved of poets after tasting the milk
> of the Goddess (v. 75)--which could refer to any one of several South
> Indian poet-saints, and in any case does not sound like an author talking
> about himself.  Several features within the text itself are thought to
> suggest a date post 1000 CE: e.g. the fact that the Goddess is described as
> wearing a nose-ornament (v. 61), and that it refers to nine, not eight,
> rasas (v. 41, 50).  Its teaching has a strongly Tantric flavour, comparable
> to that of the late Yoga UpaniSads (themselves of doubtful date).
>
I did notice the nose "muktAmaNidhara" in v.61 and was amused.
The text talks of "dramilas'is'u" in v.75. The commentary
(translation of Laksmidhara) speaks of the saivite saint
TirujnAnasambandhara, with a legend.

The rasa description in v.51 mentions eight; s'r^ngAra,
kutsana, rosha, vismaya, bhIta, sarasiruha (vIra),
smerA, karuNA.  The words from the verse.


> See W. Norman Brown (ed. and trans.), The SaundaryalaharI or Flood Of
> Beauty, Harvard UP, 1958. pp. 25-30.  (Well worth a look even if you don't
> agree with his conclusions, since he reproduces the miniature paintings
> from two illustrated mss of the poem!)
>

Thank you.  I'll check.

BM