What is the best ENGLISH LANGUAGE rendering of the great
philosopher's name? (I.e., in terms of pronunciation in
English)
Sancara
Sankara
Zankara
Shankara
Shancara
Shamkara (my favorite)
It seems to me that Shankara and Shamkara both would be
fine, although my personal favourite would be Shankara (I believe this is the
most usual rendering, too, when indological transliteration isn't used). The
forms with -c- are somewhat confusing, since some people might think that the
c should be pronounced -tsh-. Zankara is out unless you are using indological
translation in the Kyoto-Harvard format. Sankara misses the Indic sound
at the beginning of the word. Generally, you cannot make a difference between
the three s's unless you use indological transliteration, but you can
differentiate between two s's, normal s and sh, which would stand for both z
and S in the Kyoto-Harvard format.
Best regards,
Lars Martin Fosse