Alakendu Das.
Dear Alakendu Das,
As you know, each of the maṭhas started by Śaṅkarācārya
has a long line of adhipatis up to the present. Each adhipati also has the title
Śaṅkarācārya. So there have been many Śaṅkarācāryas
after
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. The idea, then, is that the majority of the more than 400 works attributed to Śaṅkarācārya
are actually by later Śaṅkarācāryas, not by Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, even though they are usually taken to be by
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya.
A clear example of this is the Saundarya-laharī, which has long been attributed to Śaṅkarācārya, meaning
Ādi Śaṅkarācārya. V. Raghavan found a manuscript of this work whose colophon stated that it is by Śaṅkarācārya, the adhipati of the Sarasvatī-pīṭha at
Śrīvidyānagara, i.e., a later
Śaṅkarācārya. (See footnote 24 in The Saundaryalaharī
or Flood of Beauty, edited and translated by W. Norman Brown, Harvard University Press, 1958, pp. 29-30.)
There are also known cases where a work written by someone else has somehow, over the years, gotten attributed to Śaṅkarācārya. An example of this is the Prabodha-sudhākara. V. Raghavan showed of the basis of manuscript colophons, etc., that it was actually written by Daivajña Sūrya Paṇḍita. (See his article, "The Nṛsimha Campū of Daivajña Sūrya Paṇḍita and the Nṛsimhavijñāpana of
Śrī
Nṛsimhāśramin," Adyar Library Bulletin, vol. 1, 1937, p. 44.)
Best regards,
David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.
On Tue, Aug 28, 2018 at 11:03 AM, alakendu das
<mailmealakendudas@rediffmail.com> wrote:
Mr.Reigle,
It was enriching going through your elaboration on Shankara's work.However,I find it interesting to know ,if 24 out of 408 works are actually by Shankara himself,then who composed the rest?
Alakendu Das.
Sent from RediffmailNG on Android