Introduction to Śaṅkara’s Biographies and its Various Sources

All the biographers of Śrī Śaṅkara are very much inclined to emulate the classical epic poets like Vālimīki, Vyāsa, Kālidāsa etc.. They have an irresistible fascination for picturing their hero as super human and above all personalities of normal human life. The traditional writers of Śrī Śaṅkara biographies were pious devotees of him. They had more interest in exhibiting their own devotion and poetic skill than in narrating facts about Śaṅkara in a simple plain language. The biographers of Śaṅkara had access into unrestricted poetic licenses and imagination make their own addition to the already existing legends and traditions.

For a pious Hindu devotee, Lord Śiva and Kṛṣṇa are not different from each other. Both are one and same in essence giving protection to dharma.

According to Advaita there is no difference between and Śiva and Viṣṇu. Lord Kṛṣṇa in the Bhagavatgīta says:

‘Whenever righteneousness declines and adharma spreads, I will make an avatar’.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glānirbhavati bhārata
  abhyutthānamadharmasya tadātmānaṃ sṛjāmyaham |
paritrāṇāya sādhūnāṃ vināśāya ca duṣkṛtām
  dharmasaṃsthapanārthāya saṃbhavāmi yuge yuge ||^[1]

According to the Purāṇās, true to his words, to counteract adharma the Lord has made several avatars in the four yugās. In Kṛtayuga he incarnated himself as Matsyā, Kūrmā, Varāha, Nṛsiṃha and Vāmana. In the next yuga, Tretāyuga, the Lord incarnated himself as Śrī Rāma and Śrī Paraśurāma. The Lord then took an incarnation as Śrī Kṛṣṇa and Śrī Balarāma in the Dvāparayuga. The final avatāra of the Lord as Kalki is yet to take place in the Kaliyuga.

At the beginning of the Kaliyuga unrighteousness had been spreading full form and righteousness was in the path of destruction. There arose 72 evil cults, which threatened to wipe away Dharma. To put an end to this and to restore dharma Lord Śiva or Lord Dakṣināmūrti came down to earth and took an avatar as Śrī Śaṅkara one of the greatest philosophers of all times.^[2] The Lord incarnated himself as a teacher or Guru this time because he wanted to bring people into the right path by imparting knowledge. The avatāra of Śaṅkara took place about two thousand years after the beginning of Kali.

Śaṅkara’s Biographies—Its Various Sources

The story of the Avatāra of Lord Śiva as Śrī Śaṅkara is given in various Itihāsās and Purāṇās.

The Liṅgapurāṇa mentions the avatāra of Śrī Śaṅkara as:

kalau rudrau mahādevaḥ śaṅkaro nīlalohitaḥ |
prakāśate pratiṣṭhārthaṃ dharmasyāvikṛtākṛtiḥ ||^[3]

In the Kaliyuga, Rudra (Lord Śiva or Śaṅkara) will shine to establish Dharma.

The Kūrmapurāṇa mentions the Śaṅkara avatāra as:

kariṣyatyavatāraṃ svaṃ śaṅkaro nīlalohitaḥ
  śrautasmārta pratiṣṭārthaṃ bhaktānāṃ hitakāmyayā ||^[4]

Which means: “Nīlakantha as Śaṅkara will make an avatāra to establish the śrutis and smṛtis to do good to his devotees”.

The Vayupurāṇa also gives an evidence:

kalyabde dvisahasrānte lokānugrahakāmyayā
  caturbhiḥ saha śiṣyaistu śaṅkaro'vatariṣyati ||^[5]

According to this after 2000 years of Kaliyuga Śrī Śaṅkara will make an avatāra with four disciples to do good to the world.

Śaṅkara is reverentially known as Śaṅkarācāryā or even Śaṅkarabhagavatpādācārya. He lived only upto 32 years. But in such a short life span he could accomplish so much. He could master all the available scriptures of Hinduism and the philosophical treatise. He could write major commentaries on scriptures, along with many independent Advaita mannuals. He could release the Vedic way from the clutches of the famous fallacious logic of Sāṃkhyas. He could forge a Hindu society out of different religious sects by convincing them all of their basic oneness. He could save Hinduism from the onslaught of Buddhism and other heterodox schools. He could attract many disciples of high calibre from all parts of India.

He established many monasteries, in different corners of country. Unfortunately, Śaṅkara is silent about himself. Nowhere in his works he gives us any information about himself, or his own family, or his teachers or his own times and missions. Nor do his direct pupils tells us anything about their revered master. The Ācārya must have believed that a man’s value depends not on what he learns, or what his position, or fame is even on what he does, but on what he is and inwardly becomes. But the inner life is always a closed book. All these must have been responsible for fictions and legends getting mixed up in the biographies of the Ācārya, generally bearing the title ‘Śaṅkara Vijaya’ (the work describing the victory and achievements of Śrī Śaṅkara).

Śaṅkaracārya’s real life is enveloped in a shroud of mystery. Scholars and critics have analysed his books by concentrating on certain aspects of his works. They may claim to have known his personality, but they are unable to write authentic details about his life. Therefore all that is said of Śaṅkara in the biographies, that were written centuries after him, could seldom produce more than a shadow of his personality. The traditional biographers of Śaṅkara describe the pathetic condition of Dharma, on the eve of Śaṅkara’s birth. Brahmins in large number, had abandoned the Vedic path and become atheists. The gods in heaven approached Lord Śiva and prayed to Him for his intervention to restore the path of the Dharma.

The Ācārya’s own works tell us very little about their author. Yet they reveal a person who was a devout monk who had developed deep into the Upaniṣadic lore, more deeply than any other Indian philosopher, of his time so that he could make logic subservient to the spirituality of the Upaniṣad. His spiritual, religious and logical acumen was unique and had only a few parallels in the history of philosophy. He believed in the basic unity of the Souls of all beings. He had a mind which understood human nature with all its merits and defects its strength and weakness. He could find a unity behind all sorts of formidable diversities in every field. He was a man of realisation and had so much compassion and deep feeling for his fellow creatures. It is for their spiritual upliftment he took upon himself the task of teaching and writing volume after volume with a missionary zeal, not stopping even a few moments for rest. His writings even after omitting those which modern scholarship would spurn and consider not genuine-are all routed in the Vedic wisdom. Yet they are meticulously logical. They have grandeur and tenderness, brilliance and depth, passion and poetry. This is all that one can legitimately claim to know Śrī Śaṅkara’s personality from a study of his works.

Regarding the biographical details contained in different Śaṅkaravijayās, there are wide variations. There is no way now of settling these differences, although they can give fertile ground for endless and inconclusive discussions for learned men. Under the circumstances, Mādhava-vidyaranya’s Śaṅkaradigvijaya which has already stood the test of time and received recognition, may be taken as sufficient authority to give the laymen much of the available information about Śaṅkara. There are however, three details of his life, which are highly controversial in nature. There is no hope of ariving at final conclusion. The wide variations of views on them suggest the need, therefore of avoiding dogmatic adherence to any particular view.

The three points that are taken for a brief and inconclusive discussion here are:

1) The date of Śaṅkara

2) What institutions he founded and

3) Where he passed away

As we have seen there are more than a dozen different known legendary biographies of Ādi Śaṅkara’s life. Many of these are called ‘Śaṅkaravijaya’, while some are called ‘Guruvijaya’, ‘Śaṅkarābhyudaya’ and Śaṅkarācāryacarita. Of these, the Bṛhat, Śaṅkaravijaya by Citsukha is the oldest biography but only available in excerpts, while Śaṅkaradigvijaya by Vidyaranya and Śaṃkaravijaya by Anandagiri are considered as very important. Other significant biographies are the Mādhaviya Śaṅkaravijayam (of Mādhava 14^th century) and Cidvilasīya Śaṅkaravijayam (of Kerala region from 17^th century). These as well as other biographical works on Śaṅkara, where written many centuries after Śaṅkara’s death, in Sankrit and non Sanskrit languages. The biographies are filled with legends and fiction, often mutually contradictory.

Scholars noted that one of the most cited ‘Śaṅkara biography’ by Ānandagiri includes stories and legends about historically different people. People bearing the same name of Śaṅkarācārya are also referred to as Śaṅkara most likely ancient scholars with names such as Vidhya-Śaṅkara, Śaṅkara-Miśra and Śaṅkara-Nanda and so on. Some biographies are probably forgerics by those who sought to create a historical basis for their rituals or theories.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

P.V. Balasubramanyan, Śrīmad Bhagavad Gīta, Chennai: Viswanatha Jatavallbhar Publication, 2015, IV.7.

[2]:

M.N. Krishnamani, Śaṇkara the Revolutionary, Delhi: Rajan Publications, 2001, p.87.

[3]:

Śivatosini of Ganeśa Nātu, Liṃgapurāṇa, Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1989, Ch. 40, part -1, Sloka 20, p. 39.

[4]:

Khemaraj, Ed., The Kurma Mahāpurāṇa, Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1983, Ch. 28. sloka 33, p. 255.

[5]:

G.V. Tajore, Vāyupurāṇa, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 2005, Ch. 32, śloka 27. p.159.