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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
JULY, 19151
MISCELLANEA. THE DATE OF SANKARACHARYA III. regarded as probably correct if there was absolute We have seen already (ante.) that Sankaracharya Agreement as to details among writers who have is posterior to the Saiva saint Tirujnana Samban. preserved the astronomical data regarding the dha. He is posterior also to the faiva saint lives of their Gurus. Fortunately for us, our Sundara-Mürti Nayanar, who, according to Tamil authorities are in agreement as to the date of tradition, is a contemporary of Cheraman, the Tirumangai Aļvår's birth : Kpittika Sukla 15, Kârlast of the Peruma!s of Kerala. Malayalam tradi- tikai Nakshatra, Thursday-which works up to tion places the Acharya's reforms in Kerala after 31st October 776. And this date agrees with the the departure of the last Peruma to Meccs. epigraphical evidence available. (See Ep. Ind.. (825 A. D.).1
Vol. VIII, p. 294). According to tradition, Tiru. An examination of Vaishnava tradition yields mangai Asvår was later than otakopa Nammalvar. us the same chronological results. The early The latter must have lived in the first half of the Vaishnava saints and sages do not refer to 8th century if he be the father of Mathura-Kavi? Sankara or his advaita doctrines, while they (6.). as is most probably the case. For Satakopa Satagopa And Tirumangai Ajvârs) condemn Saiva, calls himself Mapan son of Kari in his pealms. Sankhya, Sakya and other schools of thought. And we have an inscription of Mathura-Kavi3
The religious songs of these Alvars are said to alias Karison of Maran probably the same as have been brought together into a collection by Satakdpa (See Epigraphist's Report for 1908, Madras, Nathamuni. This is known as the 4,000 songs p. 69). According to Vaishnava tradition Mathura. (Naldyira.prabandham), the vernacular Bible of the Kavi was the publisher of the work of Satakopa Vaishnavas. NAthamuni and his apostolic suc- (Tiruviymoli). As regards Nathanuni he was a censora attack Sankara's doctrines. The former contemporary of the Chola king Raja Narayan attacks him in his Nyaya-tattva referred to by alias Porântaka (19th century). Here again Sri RamainusAcharya in his Satra-bhashya. The Vawhnava tradition can be reconciled with known second in succession from Nathamuni was Yamuna facts. For it places Náthamuni four generations Acharya (alias Aļavandar) who mentons Sankara
Ar) who mentons Sankara before Ramanuja ( b. 4 April 1018). It is true in his Sindhi-traya. And Yamuna was the Parama that it speaks of the former (wrongly, of course) Guru Guru's Guru) of Sri-Ramanujacharya. It
as of the second generation from Satakópa, but it is clear that Sankara must have lived before suggests that there was something of a break in Nathamuni. It is also probable that he lived the Guruparampard by stating that the work of after the Vaishnava Aļvârs.
Satakopa published by Mathura-Kavi had fallen Wo are in a position to fix the dates of the into desuetudo long before Nathamuni's time. Vaishnava Aļvârs and Acharyas in the light of It is, therefore, likely that Sankaracharya lived astronomical, epigraphical and traditional evi. in the 9th century, between Tirumangai Alvår and dence. The astronomical data would indeed have Mathura-Kavi (8th century) on the one hand and been conclusive had they been found in the Nathamuni (10th century) on the other. writings of the authors themselves. Where this is
S. V. VENKATESWARA. not the case, one has to look for them in the
KUMBAKONAM, works of later writers. But results could be 186 October 1914. }
Mr. L. D. Swamikannu Pillai informs me that there is no other date which corresponds to these data for centuries earlier or later.
The late Mr. Venkayys was of opinion that Mathura-Kavi was an elder contemporary, perhaps the father, of Batakopa (Madras Epigraphiet'. Report for 1908, p. 69). There is no need to falsify the Vaishnava tradition, however, as he has done. It is more than possible that Kari was the name both of Maran's father and his son, the grandchild being usually named after the grandfather.
3 Mathura-Kavi was great Sanskrit scholar and poet. The Vojvikuli Grant style him daraud (well-verned in the Sdstrae), Kavi (poet) and rigms (able debator). It is, therefore, significant that ho is not known to have referred to or attacked Bankaracharya. The Anamalai cave insoriptions imply that the death of Mathura-Kavi had taken place before 770 A. D.
