Age of Sri Adi Sankaracharya

Fixing the time of Sri Sankara:

Of the numerous compositions with the title 'Sankara Vijaya and describing the
exploits of Sri Sankara, the Brihat Sankara Vijaya of Chitsukhacharya is the most
famous and authoritative.` The author Chitsukhacharya was associated with
Sankara from the age of 5, in his studies at school and when he (Sankara) became a
Sanyasi (or monk! in his 10th Year, followed his example. receiving the initiation at
his hands and always kept him company thereafter throughout his wenderings and
exploits all over the country, survived Sri Sankara for several years and composed
his great work 'The Brihat-SankaraVijaya to immortalise the achivements of his
friend and preceptor. The date of the birth of Sri Sankara is specified in this
authoritative treatise, This date tallies with the date assigned to the birth of Sri Adi
Sankaracharya in the lists of the Acharyas of the various religious establishments
known as Sankara Pithas established by Sri Adi Sankara at Dwarka, Kanchi, Puri etc,
These lists of the heads of the religious establishments are complete and
continuous from the time of the founder Sri Adi Sankara to the present day. These
lists are therefore traditional documents of unquestioned authenticity and authority.
The date of the birth of Sri Sankara according to these authorities is given by the
verse.
"

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tishyae prayaatya nalasaevadhi baaNanaetrae |
yae naMdanae dinamaNaa vudagadhvabhaaji |
raadhae ditae ruDuvinirgatamangalagnae |
syaahootavaan Sivaguru@h sacha SaMkaraeti ||

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Meaning:- Anala=3. Sevadhi = 9, Bana = 5, Netra= 2, which comes to 2593rd
year of Kali (or 509 B. C.)
On Sunday, Vaisakha Sukla Panchami in the constellation and Lagna of Dhanus in
the year Nandana, a son was born to Sivaguru and he was named Sankara by his
father in 2593 Kali (which corresponds to 3102-2593=509B.C)
Referring to the extraordinary meeting of Sankara with Kumarila Bhatta (the great
expounder of the Karma Kanda of the Vedas) on his funeral pyre, the Jina Vijaya
declares: -- "There-upon when 15 years had elapsed from his birth, (in 2608 Kali or

494 B.C,,) Sankara met Bhattacharya (`Kumarila Bhatta) for the first and last time."
Referring to the date of Sankaracharya's Niryana, the Jina Vijaya states:
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RShi rbaaNa stadhaa bhuumi rmartyaakshau vaamamaeLanaat|
eakatveana labheataankam taamraakshaa tatra vatsara@h|

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"When we calculate the figures Rishi = 7. Bana = 5, Bhumi = 1 and Martyakshau =
2, in the reverse order and reckon the total number of years in the Yudhishtira
Saka(of the Jains), we arrive at the year Tamraksha (Raktakshi) as the year of
Sankaras death."
Hence Sankara's Niryana works out to 2157+468 = 2625 Kali or 3102-2625=477
B.C.; (or 2634 B.C. - 2157 =) 477B.C.
(Note I: The Jains and Buddhists use a Yudhishtira era which commences 468 years
after Kali i. e. in (3102 B.C.-468=) 2634 B. C.)
The Jinavijaya is a composition by a Jaina. It contains among other things a brief
account of the life of Kumarila Bhatta whom the Jains (who condemn the Vedic
rituals) held as their bitterest opponent. Therein we find a reference to the meeting
of Sankara with Kumarila just before the death of the latter.
There could be no partiality in the writer in favour of his opponents.
Chronology of the Peetadhipaties of Kanchi KamaKoti Peetha, commencing
from Adi Sankara (509 B. C)
The Sankaracharya matha established in Kanchipura by Sri Sankara himself,
(transferred to Kumbhakonam in the Tanjore District, in the end of the eighteenth
century) and presided over from time to time by men of vast learning, great piety
and mighty intellect, has continued to be a centre of Hindu culture and religion in
these parts. Some of the
occupants of the Kamakoti pitha, are among the most distinguished teachers of
Vedanta philosophy and authors of well-known treatises on Advaita-Vedanta. _
The Chronology of the Kamakoti Pitha is of the utmost importance as it gives
accurate dates for a number of events in the history of India. Therefore, all
information that is dated, and dated accurately, is of immense importance to it.
There can be no doubt of the accuracy of the chronology as a whole. The Punya
slokamanjari gives only the cyclic year, the (lunar) month, Paksha and tithi,
sometimes
even the time of the day, decease of the gurus. But here and there. the Kali or Saka
year is given, and with the help of these, we can get a complete chronology.
The chronological table of Kamakoti clearly gives the following dates among many:

1. Establishment of Peetha 482 B.C.

2. Sri Sankaracharya, First Acharya, occupied peetha for 6 years, demise: Raktakshi
year, Vaisakha month, Sukla-Paksha, 11th day, 476 B.C.
Nepalaraja Vamsavali:
In the Suryavamsi dynasty of Nepal the 18th king was Vrishadeva Varma. He
reigned from 2554 Kali to 2615 Kali or 547 B.C., to 486 BC. (Vide Chronology of
Nepal History Reconstructed by this Author.)
It is stated in the Nepalaraja Vamsavli that; "Adi Sankaracharya came from the
South and destroyed the Buddha faith." Kali 2614 or 487 B.C. (Vide The Ind. Ant.
Vol. XIII p. 411 ff)
Temple of Sankaracharya in Kashmir:
"Gopaditya the 70th king in the list of Kashmir kings (417-357 B.C.) founded
Agraharas and built the temples of Jyestheswara and Sankaracharya" (A short
history of Kashmir By P. Gwasha Lal, B.A., Ed. 1932; p. 27).
Sankaraoharya"-"This shrine is situated in the city of Srinagar. Sankaracharya is
an ancient temple crowning the Takht-i-Sulaiman hill and standing 1000 ft. above
the valley. The temple and the hill on which it stands take their name from
Sankaracharya, the great South Indian Teacher of Monism who came to Kashmir
from Travancore. This temple was built by king Gopaditya who reigned in Kashmir
from 368 to 308 B.C. It was repaired later by the liberal minded Muslim king Zainul
Abdin." (Vide The Hindu dated 1771949 p. 15, 2nd column and Kali Saka
Vijnanam by K. Venkatachalam part III, p. 66). The real time of Gopaditya is 417-357
B.C. `Therefore it is evident that Sri Adi Sankaracharya lived before Gopadityas
time i. e. Between 509-477 B.C. (This is elaborately discussed in NepalaRajaVamsavali by it author K. Venkatachalam)
Esoteric Buddhism: Mr. A. P. Sinnett in his "Esoteric Buddhism" (VIII Ed 1903, Ist Ed.
being printed in 1883-pp. 182, 183) assigns the year 503 B.C. or thereabouts for
Sankaracharya. This tallies with the date 509 B.C., given in Brihat Sankara Vijaya
and Jina Vijaya.
It is clear from the above evidence that Sri Adi Shankaracharya was born
in 509 B.C., and passed away in 477 B.C.
Note: The above extract is from The Chronology of Kashmir History Reconstructed
by Pandit
Kota Venkata Chelam published in 1955.

Due to some reasons Srigeri Sankara Mutt lost its actual sucessors list/not able to
preserve properly as shringeri is located in a remote area which lies on the banks of
Tunga river. Although they declare the date of 780 AD earlier they changed their
views to 1st century BC of Vikrama era.

But due to some confusion of identification of the guru of Adi Sankaracharya the
above differenc arised. (Govinda Bhagavatapada is Guru of Adi Sankaracharya and
Father Sri Harsha Vikramaditya - The storey is that he married four girls (Brahmin,
Kshytria, Vysha and Shudra)and got four sons. Sri Harsha Vikramaditya is son of
Kshytria wife whom lived three/four centuries before Vikramaditya the great fo 1st
century BC.
Note: The dates of Puri and Dwaraka Sankar Mutt list is coinciding with that of
Kanchi Mutt.

shringeri had records saying that shankara birth date was 44bc.even at kalady
temple wall carved 44bc date. but around1960 onwards shringeri started to claim
that shankara was born 788AD.ONE PROF PATHAK WHO CLAIMED 788 AD ON THE
BASIS OF ONE COPPERPLATE AND PUBLISHED SCHOLARLY THESIS WHICH WAS WELL
ACCEPTED BY WESTERN SCHOLARS AND EVEN RELIGIOUS ENDOWMENT
COMMISSIONER ONE MR. SADASHIVA RAO FINALISED AT DELHI INDIAN GOVT IN
1964 OR SO.PLS NOTE AMONG SHANKARITE PEETHAMS SHRINGERI PEETHAM IS
ONLY PEETHAM WHICH ACCEPTED 788 AD . EVEN GAUDAPADACHARYA MUTT WHICH
IS SAID TO BE THE PARAMAGURU PEETHAM OF SHANKARA. IT IS A SARASWATH
PEETHAM HAVING MAIN MAHA MUTT AT GOA THE LINEAGE STANDS AT 77th pontiff
at present shrimad shivananda saraswathi swamiji. kanchi mutt is said to be in a
way dwandwa peetham.kanchi mutt knows very well about it. further govinda
bhagavatpada is 2nd yathi in lineage and next to him is vivaranananda saraswathi
the 3rd yathi so on now 77th pontiff. pls note shankara was not the patta shishya of
govinda bhagavatpada but only sanyasa deeksha shishya. gaudapadacharya mutt is
a saraswath peetham and for saraswaths community only. pls note shankara was
not a saraswath but nambudri brahmin.gaudapada did thapasya at omkareshwar
hill called vaiduryamani parvath . reference is there in guptha period about this
vaiduryamani parvath. the samadhi of govindapada on which omkar linga was
installed by harsha vikramaditya hence omkareswar is most sacred centre to all
saraswaths being our guru samadhi. further gaudapadacharya mutt also claims
shankar date as 509 bc and adds 120 years to gaudapadacharya date of birth. when
i met swamiji at anandavana at s v road kandivili mumbai he did not know about
vaidurya mani parvath but claims shankara date as 788 ad as dharmakirhi was
refered by shankara. scholars who have been claiming that river saraswathi as a
myth now after research of kalyanaraman chennai they all admit that existence of
river saraswathi as a hardcore truth. so till final word is given shankara date can not
admitted 788 ad .because scholars evidences cannot give final word as the case
happened in river saraswathi.

Some Indian scholars and westren scholars base their arguments for denying the
509-477 BC to Sankara basing on Dharmakirti reference by Sankara and taking
Chalukya ruler Vikramditya to fix up matters.
There can be many Dharmakirti names as there are Sankaracharya names.
The confusion can be cleared if Sanakra- Dharmakirti reference made is taken as
one made by Saankaracharya Peetdhipati of Kanchi who lived to the ripe age of 80.
If Nepalese, Kashmir chronologies are taken. When
For Asoka you go to outside refernces why not accept here ?
I am sure in India wehre Jayantis are celbrated on the basis of horoscopic charts,for
such a great person like Bhagavatpada we allow fabricated Birth data or date as
alleged by skeptics. tr
They reject Horscopic detail of Sankara's birth, Nepalese and Kashmir history
http://trueindianhistory-kvchelam.blogspot.in/2009/04/age-of-sri-adisankaracharya.html

Date of Shankara the great saint of Hinduism is always been controversial. Dates
ranging from 5th century BC to 9th century AD. Let us analyze the dates.

Internal Evidence
The most important internal evidence comes from Sankara's verbatim quotation of
Dharmakirti, the buddhist logician. Hsuan Tsang , the Chinese pilgrim, who visited
India in the time of Harshavardhana, king of Thanesar (606 - 647 CE), gives clues to
Dharmakirti's date. He also mentions Bhartrhari , but not of Sankara. It follows that
Sankara is post-Dharmakirti, and possibly post-Hsuan-Tsang also.

Astronomical Details
Various Sankara-vijaya texts are not of much use. The details in one work contradict
those in another. Dates ranging from the 5th cent BCE to 8th cent CE have been
calculated on the basis of such astronomical details. One further complication is
that some astronomical information is said to have been obtained from works which
are not available anywhere in India. So no firm conclusion can be drawn based on
this.

Records of Mutts
Whether Sankara established any Mutts at all has been questioned. Paul Hacker
attributes the tradition of four amnaya-maths at Sringeri, Puri, Dvaraka and
Joshimath to Vidyaranyasvamin. The native oral tradition, takes the history of these
four Mutts,each associated with one of the four geographical directions and one of
the four vedas, to Sankaracarya himself. The dasanami sannyasi-sampradaya, with

its various akhadas in northern India, accepts affiliation only with these four mutts.
There historical evidence for the existence of the oldest dasanami akhadas as early
as the 9th cent. CE. It is immaterial whether Sankara established them himself or
whether these four mutts developed naturally at the places where the four famous
disciples of Sankara lived and taught. Of these four mutts, the Joshimath title had
long been vacant, till it was revived in 1940 CE. So, it does not have many ancient
records. The Dvaraka and Puri mutts have, in the past, claimed a date of 5th
century BCE for Sankara. This is partly based upon a dating of a grant by a king
named Sudhanva who is supposed to have been a contemporary of Sankara.
Nothing else is known about this king, and the grant itself has not been dated with
any accuracy.And Dvaraka and puri mutts have patchy histories, with periods when
there were no presiding Sankaracaryas.

Sringeri Mutt
Sringeri mutt in karnataka has been the only mutt of the original four which has had
an unbroken succession of mathadhipatis, as southern India has not experienced as
many political upheavals as the north. The Sringeri mutts record states that Sankara
was born in the 14th year of the reign of Vikramaditya. The record does not give any
clue about the identity of this king. Some 19th century researchers identified this
king with the famous Vikramaditya of the Gupta dynasty, thereby postulating a date
of 44 BCE for Sankara. Gap of 700 years was then assigned to Suresvara. The later
successors in the Sringeri list can all be dated reasonably accurately from the 8th
century downwards. If one identifies the Vikramaditya as a member of the Western
Chalukya dynasty, which ruled from Badami in Karnataka. The Chalukya dynasty
reached its greatest fame in the time of Pulakesin II, who defeated Harshavardhana.
There were two kings named Vikramaditya in this Chalukya dynasty - Vikramaditya I
ruled in the late 7th century CE, while Vikramaditya II ruled in the early 8th century.
It is more reasonable to identify the Vikramaditya of the Sringeri record with one of
these two Chalukyan kings, who ruled from Karnataka, rather than the northern
gupta king, whose empire did not include southern India. This interpretation of the
Sringeri record is also consistent with the internal evidence from Sankara's works.

Mutt Politics
In addition to these four original mutts, a number of other advaita mutts have come
into being over the centuries, some of which are quite well-known. These mutts
either started out as branches of the original institutions, or were set up as
independent monasteries by notable sannyasis of the dasa-nami order. With the
proliferation of such mutts came a number of "traditions," many of them conflicting
with one another in details. some of these mutts also claim to have been
established by Sankara himself., Some of them also claim 5th century BCE to be the
date of Sankara.

The intimate connection of the founders of the Vijayanagara empire with the
Sringeri mutt, and the competition by other mathadhipatis in the south for similar
honors as traditionally accorded to the Sringeri Mutt. Every southern Mutt with a
claim to be the "original" one wants to deny Sringeri's chronological primacy. This
denial only has the effect of reinforcing the fact that Sringeri has been the most
important advaita mutt for centuries. As such, their conflicting claims about
Sankara's date have to be evaluated in the context of their political motivations in
putting forth such dates.
Kanchi Mutt
Fifth advaita mutt at Kanchipuram is very active today, does not mean that it has
always been so, nor does such activity lend any special credibility to its claims to
antiquity. The political influence and prestige that a Mutt enjoys today also do not
confer any legitimacy to such claims. It is inconceivable that the dasa-namisampradaya would have overlooked a fifth mutt in choosing its affiliations. Claims to
historicity that are made in a spirit of political one-upmanship seldom stand up to
serious scrutiny. There is no necessary correlation between the modern activity of
an advaita mutt and its claimed antiquity.
Gaudapada
Gaudapada is ParamaGuru of Shankara. Guru Govinda was Shankara's guru. So if
we find the date of Guru, we can arrive at the date of Shishya. Gaudapada lived
after the major Buddhist writers especially, Vasubhandhu, Nagarjuna, aryadeva
(disciple of Nagarjuna) whose work he clearly reflects. In the 6th century work of
Bhavaviveka, there is a direct quotations from Guadapada. Bhavaviveka was junior
contemproary of Dharmapala whose date is confirmed by Chinese travellers in 5th
century AD. So he has to be earlier than that, that is 5th century AD. Traditional
advaitha list Gaudapada is student of Shukdeva who in turn was student of Ved
Vyasa of Mahabharata. We can even argue bhavaviveka and Gaudapada are arguing
from same source. Many also argue that Gaudapada is a institution not a person. To
cut short the discussion, we can say that Gaudapada lived around 5th century AD.
When shankara says Gaudapada to be his paramaguru, we have to take the
context. Guru Govinda padacharya was shankara's guru and his guru greatest Guru
is Guru Gaudapada. In this context we can see shankara comes around 800 AD
date.

conclusion
The official date accepted currently is 788-820 CE, and the Government of India
celebrated the 1200th anniversary of Sankara's birth in 1988. This date is largely
based upon one traditional view prevalent in India.

Did Adi Shankara Shake Hands With Buddha?

P.K. Ramakrishnan / 12 yrs ago /

23

Co-authored by Sankar Iyer

It must be admitted in all fairness that it was the British who first wrote the history
of India. The Hindus probably are the only race who, despite having such
intelligence, bravery and tremendous capacity for successive revivals, have showed
such pathetic neglect of history.
Why rewrite Indian History? by V. S. Godbole

The neglect of history by the Hindus may be attributed to their sense or rather nosense of the time as we understand today. This attitude has played havoc with the
chronological order in Indian history. The dictum Old is gold has resulted in
pushing historical personalities and facts way back in time. A classical example is
the recent celebration of 2510 years of the birth of Adi Sankara by Kanchi Mutt at
Kaladi on 6th May 2003. It is not our intention to challenge anyone. We are only
eager to see the evidences to change the year of birth of Sankara by more than
1300 years backwards.
In his article on Sree Sankaracharya, K Kunjunni Raja, a noted historian and a
Keralite has this to say:
Debates have continued for over a century regarding Sree Sankaracharya's period,
with no authentic conclusions as yet. Prof. Theele in his Outlines of the History of
Ancient Religions (1877) had mentioned the period as 788-820 AD. He had surmised
this from a statement in Aarya Vidyaa Sudhaakaram of Yajneswara Saasthri, a work
based onSankara Mandaara Sourabham of Bhatta Neelakandhan, son of
Thrivikraman and Parvathy Amba. Neelakandhan had another Kaavyam (poetic
composition),Sankaraabhyudayam, in which it was mentioned that he was born in
788 AD and died on Vaisaakha Poornima day. His period is attributed with certainty

to be after scholars such as Bharthruhari, Dingnaaga, Gaudapaada, Dharmakeerthi

and Kumaarilabhatta. Thus 788-820 period is believable.
This period has been accepted by Sringeri Sharada Peetham as can be seen from
their web page (http://www.sringeri.org).
To our knowledge, no historian has ever claimed that Sankara was born five hundred
years before Jesus. Such a claim would have to answer the following facts:
1. Prof. P. Sankaranarayanan in his article The life and work of Sri Sankara published
in the web page of Kanchi Mutt writes: Buddhism, the rebel child of the Vedic
religion and philosophy, denied God and the soul, laid the axe at the very roots of
Vedic thought and posed a great danger to its very survival. This onslaught was
stemmed occasionally, compelling Buddhism to seek refuge in other lands. While
the credit for this should go primarily to the Mimamsaka, Kumarila Bhatta, it was
because of Sri Sankara's dialectical skill and irrefutable arguments that it ceased to
have sway over the minds of the inheritors of Vedic religion.
According to Pandit Nehru, the greater onslaught on Buddhism came from the Hindu
Gupta kings and the religion was already weak when Sankara appeared on the
scene. There are strong historical evidences to suggest that Siddhartha Gautama,
known as the Buddha, was born in the sixth century BC. If we accept Kanchi Mutt's
view, these two historical figures (Buddha and Sankara) were contemporaries or a
few decades apart. It took many centuries and Asoka, Kanishka and others to make
Buddhism a powerful religion threatening Hinduism.
The hold of Buddhism on the masses of India could be seen from the writing of
celebrated Chinese pilgrim Faxian (334-420 AD). He made a journey that marked
the high point of the first wave of Chinese pilgrims in India. He left China in 399 AD
and returned in 414 AD. We see that even two centuries later the religion was
hardly weakened as may be gleaned from the detailed historic accounts of the reign
of Harshavardhana (606-647AD). The sources for such accounts are: coins and
inscriptions, the reports of pilgrims, official Chinese documents and writings by wellknown personalities like the Chinese traveler Huien Tsang.
Though a Hindu, King Harshavardhana maintained an impartial tolerance towards
the other religions, especially Buddhism that at that time was the religion of the
common masses. To honor Huien Tsang, a devout student Buddhist theology and
admirer of the holy land of Buddha, Harshavardhana organized the Kanauj Assembly
in 643 AD. This was a grand assembly of many rajas including King Bhaskaravarman
of Kamrupa (Assam) and the Vallabhi king, Dhuvabhatti. The Assembly at Kanauj
included a large congregation of Brahmans, Buddhist monks ands Jains, who were
involved in religious discourses. We should not forget to mention that Huien Tsang,
along with thousands of students from many countries, studied in the well-known
Buddhist university of Nalanda. If so, how could the religion that Sankara opposed

and helped drive out of India flourish 1150 (500 + 650 = 1150) years after his
supposed birth?
The learned professor (Sankaranarayanan) further says, While modern historians
fix his period as 780-820 AD, the tradition determined by the pontifical succession
of various Maths fix him several centuries before Christ.

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Here also there is contradiction. The present pontiff of Sringeri Mutt is 36th in the
line. If Sankara established both Kanchi and Sringeri Mutts, how is it that the Kanchi
Mutt's pontiff is 69th in succession?
Thus we are comfortable with the eighth century son of Aryamba and Sivaguru. We
cannot imagine a Sankara who shook hands with Buddha and/or fought Buddhism in
its infancy.
2. No one yet disputes about Sankara being a Namboothiri Brahmin from Kaladi in
Kerala. Though it is claimed that Parasurama brought Nambuthiris to Kerala,
historical evidences seem to imply that they probably migrated from Gujarat and
Sindh in the 6th or 7th century AD. It was their influence which brought about
Malayalam (a fairly new language) by amalgamating Tamil with Sanskrit. No scholar
ever claims that Nambuthiris were in Kerala for 3000 years.
3. It was in 825 AD that the Malayalam Era called Kollavarsham was started by
King Rajasekhara Varma of Kollam. One legend tells us that this new calendar was
started to honour the great Sree Sankaracharya and refers to the popular Kali Dina
Samkhya,Aachaarya Vaagabhedyaa, which translates to the number 1434160
according to Katapayaadi. This works out that this era started in 825 A.D. It is
believed that Sankara and Rajasekhara Varma were contemporaries.

As Keralites (the senior author was born and brought up in Sankara's birthplace,
Kaladi), we are proud of our fellow citizen and believe that Sankara born in any era
will remain Sankara. We hope that there are strong arguments not to change
Sankara's period from 788-820 AD to 407-374 BC.
References:
1. Kanchi Kamakoti Mutt (http://www.kamakoti.org/)
2. Sri Sringeri Sharada Peetham (http://www.sringeri.org)
3. Namboothiri website (http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/history.htm)
4. Yu-Ki Or, Buddhist Records of the Western Countries written by Hsien-tsang (circa
650 AD). Taken from Translations by Thomas Watters (1904) and Samuel Beal
(1884) http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Hsien-Tsang.htm)
5. Messengers of light: Chinese Buddhist pilgrims in India by Paul Magnin Unesco
Courier, Vol. 48 No.5 May.1995 Pp.24-27.
6. Discovery of India by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
As far as my understanding goes the date of 407-374 BC is correct. The anomaly of
Sankaracharya being contemporary of Buddha arises because birth of Buddha itself
is taken wrong.
The Birth of Buddha has been worked out on basis of account of Megasthenes.
Megasthenes was contemporary of Alexander and Chandragupta Maurya. Ashoka
was grandson of Chandragupta and in edicts of Ashoka it was written that Buddha
was born few hundred years before Ashoka and hence birth of Buddha was decided.
Where as Chinese accounts and many other accounts claim Buddha was born
around 1200 BC. Megasthenes where as described Chandragupta II and not
Chandragupta Maurya who was born centuries before him.