Adi Sankara's Birth (Historical Background)

Adi Sankara’s Manifestation (B.C. 509 – B.C. 477)

The Traditional History

(B.C. 509, Kali-sakam 2593)

Sri Adi Sankara was born (descended as an avatara-purusha अवतार  पुरुष) in Kerala. According to the local tradition, his birth date was embedded in his sacred name, “Sankara”.

There is a number system: “ka-ta-pa-yaa-di” (కటపయాది) . According to this scheme, if we count from the letter ‘ya’, Sa will be the fifth consonant(ya ra la va Sa). ‘ka’ becomes the first letter if we start counting from ‘ka’. Using the same logic, we find ‘ra’ is the second letter. Therefore, 5-1-2 represents the name “Sankara”.

“Ankaanam vamato gatihi” (అంకానాం వామతో గతిః).  In Sanskrit, numbers are counted from left to right. Thus, we get the sequence: 2-1-5.

Which means, the second month, Vaisakha(m), suddha paksham, and tidhi is panchami.

Thus, from the ancient times - till today, we have been celebrating this day (Vaisakha suddha panchami) as the birth anniversary of Sri Jagadguru Adi Sankara – as a great festival. 

1. According to Adi Sankara’s contemporary Chitsukhacharyula’s work (Brihat-Sankara Vijayam), the birth year and birth date gets specified as: Nadana-Vaisakha-suddha-panchami Sunday. Lagnam is Abijit (32 prakra. 12-16 slokas.)

2. On this particular point, i.e., birth year as B.C. 509 (Before Christ 509) Hindu year, Nandana: T.S. Narayana Sastri (of Madras) authored “Age of Sankara (1930). Sri Kota Venkatachalam wrote several books. An extensive investigation and research of these works confirms the birth year as B.C. 509.

3. Even if we go by the succession of gurus (preceptors) in several of the Sankara Mathas (Mutts) established by Adi Sankara, simply the above birth date gets further confirmed (and the issue gets settled beyond doubt).

a) This book contains all the details about the lineage (succession of Gurus) of Kanchi Kamakotipitha since B.C. 509. For the period from B.C. 509 to 1969, i.e., approximately two thousand and five hundred years, there are sixty-eight (68) Gurus (preceptors). On average, the span of their individual reign (as Head of the Pitham) was not more than thirty seven (37) years.

b) Even if we consider the lineage of Dwaraka Pitha, there are seventy nine (79) gurus since the fifth century (B.C.). Average span of their gurus does not exceed thirty-two (32) years.

c) Puri Govardhan Pitham – Jagannadham – in their lineage too, there are 144 gurus since the fifth century (B.C.). Their average time period of each guru was not more than eighteen (18) years. 

d) Details of Badari Jyotirmath(am) are not known.

e) Interested readers can consult the English book, “The Traditional Age of Sri Sankaracharya and Maths” for the histories of (a), (b), (c), and Sringeri Math. The book contains other valuable information. Its authors are Sri A. Natarajayyar and Sri S. Lakshminarasimha Sastri, M.A., L. T.

f) Mention must also be made of the works of Pandit Sri Kota Venkatachalam (of Vijayawada). He conducted extensive research into Indian History with the aid of traditional sources and evidences.

g) In the book, ‘Epochs of the History of Bharata Varsha’, Sri Kalyana-ananda Bharatimantacharya Swami (of Guntur) determined Adi Sankara’s birth year as B.C. 509. (page 130, Ed. 1931)

h) ‘Vidya-vachaspati’, ‘Vidwatkaviratna’, ‘Mahopadhyaya vaiyakarana kesari’, ‘Dharmopanyasa kesari’ Sri Punya Umamaheswara Sastri also confirmed Adi Sankara’s birth year as Kalisaka – 2593 (B.C. 509) in his book “Nava Sankara Vijayarya-sahasram”. (Sanskrit book, page 4)

i) Reputed author, research scholar Sri Kanuparti Markandeya Sarma wrote “Srimat-Sankaracharya charitramu” (published in 1932). The author, after examining the preceptor lineage of Kanchi Kamakoti, Puri, and Dwaraka pitham confirmed the afore mentioned details. 

(from Jagadguru Divya Charitra)

Some western historians and their (avowed) followers have followed different methods in determining Sri Adi Sankara’s birth date (tidhi – the lunar calendar day). They got confused in various ways: some claiming before the Christian Era, some saying seventh or eighth century A.D. None of them ascertained the date after a close examination of the (Kanchi) Pitham’s historical records and their chronology of successive preceptors. Yet, their (the westerners’) criticism served well to create and propagate many sorts of fictional stories.

Many historians erroneously regarded Sri Abhinava Sankara (A.D. 788-840) as the real (original) Adi Sankara. The reason for this mistake was: Sri Abhinava Sankara too like the Adi Sankara traveled the entire Indian subcontinent (Bharata) and propagated Advaita brahma vidya. He initiated the spiritual renaissance. Not only that, like the Adi Sankara, Sri Abhinaava Sankara too was a great embodiment of erudition and scholarship. Sri Abhinava defeated a poet laureate (Vakpatibhattu) of Kashmir King. Sri Abhinava then ascended the throne of Sarwajna Pitham. Vakpati Bhatt described Sri Abhinava’s miraculous powers in his work, Sankarendra Vilas(am). People were moved by Sri Abhinava Sankara’s victorious travels. Later Sri Abhinava entered the Dattatreya cave – a cave in Atreya mountain, along the Himalayan Mountains. The aforesaid details exhibit some similarity to the incidents in Adi Sankara’s life; perhaps, that was the reason why historians have mistakenly identified Sri Abhinava as the real Adi Sankara.

Also, these factors contributed to the wrong observation – of mistaken identity: Though Sri Adi Sankara left mortal body at Kanchi in 477 B.C., many thought he had entered a cave in the Himalayas (The video movie on Adi Sankara too depicts erroneously such a scene towards the end.). Adi Sankara did go to the Himalayas, for a purposeful visit to Kailas, to bring five Linga crystals on to the earth. However, a credible theory is that Sri Adi Sankara attained salvation in the second compound of Kanchi Kamakshi temple. 

In the lineage of Kanchi Kamakoti preceptors, we find the following sequence: Krupasankarulu (A.D. 28-69), Ujjwala Sankara (A.D. 329-367), Mukasankara (398-437) and Abhinava Sankara (A.D. 788-840). Due to the presence of Sankara word in all these names, the search for the correct (historical) time determination of Adi Sankara has become really difficult. When we carefully examine these issues and the reasons for the confusion that arises due to the “same name”, the puzzle gets resolved. And truth becomes self-evident.

Also, we get to appreciate why the title ‘Sankaracharya’ is applied to all the preceptors in the lineage of teachers (gurus) in the Pitham. This tradition continues till date.

“Lord Siva moves around in the form of Sankara-acharya”

[Translator’s Note: These excerpts are taken from a Telugu book, titled “Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Sarvajnapitha Jagadguru Divyacharitra” authored by Sri Nudurumati Venkataramana Sarma, B.A., Published by Kumari Vemuri Sadhana, Hyderabad. The sole purpose of this blog-post is to bring awareness about the traditional sources relevant to Adi Sankara. Controversies or endless inert inane arguments will never settle any issue. Perhaps, a sudden insight guided by pure unbiased intellect and scholarship may help some times. 

Many English books (based on third rate tertiary sources) have unnecessarily created false histories about both Adi Sankara and the Upanishads. It is a great tragedy – forcibly heaped on the timeless (Sanatana) Hindu culture. One wonders whether any ulterior motives (or sheer ignorance of Sanskrit and other Indian languages) had driven some historians to distort the time period of Adi Sankara?] Copyright 2021 by the author (only the English Translation).