Jump to content

Adi Shankara

From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Adi Shankara
Painting of Adi Shankara, exponent of Advaita Vedanta with his disciples by Raja Ravi Varma
Personal life
Born
Shankara

8th Century CE CE[note 1]
Died9th century CE [note 1]
Known forExpounded Advaita Vedanta
HonorsJagadguru
Religious life
ReligionHinduism
PhilosophyAdvaita Vedanta
Religious career
GuruGovinda Bhagavatpada

Adi Shankara (788 CE-820 CE), also called Adi Shankaracharya (Sanskrit: आदि शङ्कर, आदि शङ्कराचार्य, romanized: Ādi Śaṅkara, Ādi Śaṅkarācārya, lit. 'First Shankaracharya',[note 2] sa),[note 3] was an Indian Vedic scholar, philosopher and teacher (acharya) of Advaita Vedanta.[1] While he is often revered as the most important Indian philosopher in the history of Hinduism, reliable information on Shankara's actual life is scant,[2] and the historical influence of his works on Hindu intellectual thought has been questioned by scholars.[3][4][5] The historical Shankara was probably relatively unknown[4][6][7] until his school expanded some centuries later and he was also Vaishnava-oriented. His true impact lies in his "iconic representation of Hindu religion and culture[8] He wrote many books such as Saundarya laharifor lauding Lakshmi. He also wrote many hymns including the Bhavani Ashtaka and Mahishasuramardini stotra in praise of goddess Durga. Shankara gave explanations for Brahma Sutra, Bhagavat Geeta, etc. His first guru was Gaudapada, who lived as a seer on the banks of river Narmada. He established for Maths in four extreme corner to spread the message of Advaita other all over the country. They are namely Jyotirmatha at Badrinath, Shardapitha at Dwarka, Govardhanmatha at Puri and Sringeri matha at Sringeri.

Until the 10th century Shankara was overshadowed by his older contemporary Maṇḍana Miśra,[4][6] and there is no mention of him in concurrent Hindu, Buddhist or Jain sources until the 11th century except for philosophers from his own school and his immediate disciples like Padmapada and Sureshvara who revere him in their respective commentaries.[7], this may however wasn't done out of respect as other scholars point out[9] The legendary Shankara was popularized for the first tme in the 14th century when Vidyaranya wrote one of the earliest biographies after him, centuries after his death, based over earlier sources by other biographers[10][11] when Sringeri matha started to receive patronage from the emperors of the Vijayanagara Empire[6][12][13][14] and shifted their allegiance from Advaitic Agamic Shaivism to Brahmanical Advaita orthodoxy.[15] Hagiographies compiled and recorded by the tradition, dating from the 12th-17th centuries deified him as a ruler-renunciate, travelling on a digvijaya (conquest of the four quarters)[16][17] across the Indian subcontinent to propagate his philosophy, defeating his opponents in theological debates.[18][19] These hagiographies portray him as founding four mathas (monasteries), and Adi Shankara also came to be regarded as the organiser of the Dashanami monastic order, and the unifier of the Shanmata tradition of worship. The title of Shankaracharya, used by heads of certain monasteries in India, is derived from his name. Tradition also portrays him as the one who reconciled the various sects (Vaishnavism, Shaivism, and Shaktism) with the introduction of the panchayatana puja form of worship, the simultaneous worship of five deities – Ganesha, Surya, Vishnu, Shiva and Devi, arguing that all deities were but different forms of the one Brahman, the invisible Supreme Being.[20]

Shankara Vijayams

[change | change source]

Shankara Vijayams (IAST Śaṃkaravijayaṃ) are traditional hagiographies of the Advaita Vedanta exegete Adi Shankara, describing his 'conquest of the four quarters'. In these hagiographies, Shankara is deified as a ruler-renunciate, bringing harmony to the four quarters.[16][17] The genre may have been modelled on the digvijayas of Madhvacharya, since one of the earliest Shankara-hagiography post-dates Madhva (1238-1317).[21] The Shankara-digvijayams mimick the royal digvijayams, as his 'conquest of the four quarters' and the establishment of his kingdom is followed by his coronation with this ascent of the Throne of Omniscience (sarvajña-pīṭha), akin to the rajasuya rites.[22][23]

The main Shankaravijayams are:

  • Brihat Shankaravijayam, no complete extant text.[24], though Narayan Shastri claims to posses its manuscripts in the library of madras.[24], It is the earliest of all Shankara's biographies which is traditionally attributed to Chitsukha[25](12th century to early part of the 13th century[26]) though could possibly include a later forging,[27] and controversial within the contemporary Advaita-tradition.[9] According to Sundaresan, "all claims about Citsukha and his Brhat Sankaravijaya ultimately derive from a highly questionable, solitary source."[28]
  • Pracina-sankara-vijaya,[25] also called Anandagirīya Shankaravijayam,[9] no complete extant text and is only available in excerpts,[29][9] attributed to Anandagiri (13th century to early part of 14th century). According to Isayeva "the most authoritative, reliable and the most widely-cited hagiography of Sankara."[25] It is frequently cited by followers of the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham, but rejected by followers of the Sringeri Sharada Peetham[29] According to Sundaresan, "quotations attributed to it must be viewed critically."[28]
  • Cidvilāsīya Shankaravijayam, attributed to Chidvilasa, c. between 15th century and 17th century
  • Keralīya Shankaravijayam, extant in Kerala, c. 17th century
  • Madhavīya Shankara (Dig)vijayam (of Madhava). Traditionally attributed to Madhava-Vidyaranya (14th century). The attribution and dating is disputed; the author was a Madhavi, and the proposed date is 17th or even 18th century.[10][30][note 4] this criticism and dating however is regarded as baseless by others who maintain the normal 14th century dating.[9] The work contains almost no new material at all and mostly follows the earlier sources.[10]

Notes

[change | change source]
  1. 1 2 Cite error: The named reference date was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
  2. ↑ Adi means "first", to distinguish him from other Shankaras.
  3. ↑ He is also known as Shankara Bhagavatpada (Śaṅkara Bhagavatpāda), Shankara Bhagavatpadacharya (Śaṅkara Bhagavatpādācārya) or Shankaracharya, sometimes spelled Sankaracharya.
  4. ↑ Isayeva refers to W.R. Antarkar (1972),Sanksepa Sankara Jaya of Madhavacarya or Sankara Digvijaya of Sri Vidyaranyamuni. Goodding refers to Jonathan Bader (2000), Conquest of the four quarters: traditional accounts of the life of Śaṅkara, p.55-56, n.75

References

[change | change source]
  1. ↑ Suthren Hirst 2005, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Isaeva 1993, pp. 69–82.
  3. ↑ Roodurmun 2002, p. 29.
  4. 1 2 3 King 2001, p. 128.
  5. ↑ Tola 1989.
  6. 1 2 3 Roodurmun 2002, pp. 33–34.
  7. 1 2 Clark 2006, p. 217.
  8. ↑ King 2001, p. 129-130.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Madhvacharya's unknown sources
  10. 1 2 3 Isayeva 1993, p. 70-71.
  11. ↑ "Shankar digvijaya" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 3 February 2022.
  12. ↑ Hacker 1995, p. 29–30.
  13. ↑ Goodding 2013, p. 89.
  14. ↑ Blake Michael 1992, pp. 60–62 with notes 6, 7 and 8.
  15. ↑ Clark 2006, p. 215, 221-222.
  16. 1 2 Nowicka 2016, p. 147.
  17. 1 2 Bader 2001, p. vii.
  18. ↑ Raju 1985, p. 383.
  19. ↑ Allen 2017.
  20. ↑ Klaus Klostermaier (2007), A Survey of Hinduism, Third Edition, State University of New York Press, ISBN 978-0-7914-7082-4, p. 40
  21. ↑ Clark 2006, p. 157.
  22. ↑ Nowicka 2016, p. 148.
  23. ↑ Clark 2006, p. 158.
  24. 1 2 Sundaresan 2000, p. 116.
  25. 1 2 3 Isayeva 1993, p. 70.
  26. ↑ "A comparative history of world philosophy". Retrieved 3 February 2022. {{cite web}}: Check |archive-url= value (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  27. ↑ Isayeva 1993, p. 71.
  28. 1 2 Sundaresan 2000, p. 117.
  29. 1 2 Sundaresan 2000, p. 113.
  30. ↑ Goodding 2013, p. 90.

Other websites

[change | change source]


Retrieved from "https://simple.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adi_Shankara&oldid=10781076"