Śankara

Hindu philosopher and religious leader

• Born: c. 700
• Birthplace: Kāladi (now in Kerala, India)
• Died: c. 750
• Place of death: Himalayas

Śanijkara, the preeminent philosopher of medieval India, founded the Advaita school of philosophy, which asserts the oneness of the individual soul (ātman) and the universal soul (Brahman). Through public disputations, numerous writings, and the founding of several monasteries in strategic locations, he revived and defended the intellectual foundations of Vedism against the threats of Buddhism and Brahmanic ritualism.

Early Life

Śanijkara (SHUHN-kuh-ruh), also known by his honorific name as Śanijkarācārya, was born into a Nambudiri Brahman (Hindu priestly class) family in southwest India. Biographies of the philosopher were composed hundreds of years later based on oral traditions, anecdotes, and legends. Some scholars believe that Śanijkara lived from c. 700 to c. 750; others believe he lived from 788 to 820. The most anyone can state with any degree of certainty is that Śanijkara lived a relatively short life, probably around thirty-two years, within the period between 650 and 800.

Books on Śanijkara’s life, most of which were originally written in Sanskrit, freely mix facts with legends, seeking to glorify him as a saint or even as an incarnation of the god Śiva. For example, it is stated that his parents Śiva guru and Aryamba had remained childless for many years. When they prayed for a child at the Vadakkunathan temple in the nearby town of Trichur, Śiva appeared in the form of light and entered Aryamba’s womb, granting her wish for a child. Because of the mythical framework within which Śanijkara’s life has been portrayed, books on his life are more hagiographies than biographies. What follows is a summary of what is commonly regarded as historically accurate.

Śiva guru died when Śanijkara was five or six years old, leaving the burden of raising the young boy to his mother, Aryamba. As was expected of young Brahman boys of the time, Aryamba entrusted her son to an experienced teacher for instruction in the Vedas, Sastras, and other Hindu classics. At age sixteen, when he completed the required course of studies and returned home, he was faced with a choice that all young Brahman men of the time needed to make: Either get married and become a householder and priest (as most preferred) or become a sannyāsin, an itinerant monk, and leave home to lead a spiritual life. Against the wishes of his mother and other relatives, Śanijkara opted to become a sannyāsin. He did, however, promise his mother to return home and perform her funeral rites when she died.

Life’s Work

When he left home, Śanijkara’s immediate goal was to find a guru (spiritual preceptor) from whom to receive further instruction in the classics and to prepare himself to lead the life of a successful ascetic. After traveling far and wide, he met a holy man named Govindapada, the disciple of the famous Vedāntist Gauḍapāda, at a hermitage on the banks of River Narmada in central India. Impressed by the young aspirant’s intelligence, background, character, and determination, Govindapada agreed to accept him as his disciple. From Govindapada, Śanijkara learned the basic principles of Advaita (nondualism):

Brahman is pure consciousness.

This ātman is Brahman.

Thou art that.

I am Brahman.

Govindapada initiated Śanijkara into the Paramahamsa order of sannyāsins, requiring the highest degree of austerity and renunciation, and encouraged him to develop the Advaita system by reinterpreting the Upaniṣads (c. 1000-c. 200 b.c.e.), the Brahmasūtra of Bādarāyana, and the Bhagavadgītā (c. 200 b.c.e.-200 c.e.; The Bhagavad Gita, 1785).

After he was thoroughly grounded in Advaita, Śanijkara started to undertake a pilgrimage throughout the land, visiting all the traditional centers of learning, including Varanasi, Gaya, Ajodhya, Indraprastha (now Old Delhi), Badari, Kailasa, and Kasmira (Kashimir) and engaging the leaders of various Hindu sects in public disputations. The tradition at the time was for scholars to present and discuss their point of view in front of large audiences, especially in conjunction with festive occasions. Local rulers also used to sponsor public disputations for both the erudition of the public and entertainment of learned audiences. Public disputations at that time were refereed events, and it would be agreed on in advance that the loser would become the disciple of the winner. Taking advantage of all such opportunities, Śanijkara challenged the leaders of various established sects, argued with them, and won them over to his point of view.

Śanijkara’s travels around the Indian subcontinent are typically described as a digvijaya (conquest of the land), evoking the specter of a regal victory parade. His journey from one cultural center to another was apparently nothing short of a spiritual conquest of the land, winning an increasingly large following for himself. The imagery of a victory parade is even more significant when one considers that a journey of this kind traditionally culminated in a ceremony in which the victor was seated in the Sarvajna Pitha (seat of omniscience) in Kasmira. Śanijkara was finally installed in the Sarvajna Pitha as the undisputed scholar of the time. Because of his vast erudition, fame, and success as a scholar, Śanijkara was also conferred the title acarya, or great teacher. Furthermore, Śanijkara’s victory in every philosophical disputation eventually won him the title jagadguru, or teacher of the world.

The debate with Mandanamisra is often cited as the most famous of all Śanijkara’s public debates and underscores his skills as a debater, his depth of knowledge, and his passion as a Vedāntist. Mandanamisra was a very famous and learned Brahman, belonging to the Mimamsa school, who lived in a city called Mahismati on the northern bank of the Narmada River. Śanijkara decided to debate him because of his fame as a scholar and a staunch defender of Brahmanic ritualism. Śanijkara first surprised Mandanamisra by dropping in on him exactly when he was getting ready to perform a ritual sacrifice. After initial exchanges of witticisms and insults, Mandanamisra agreed to a public debate with Śanijkara, and Mandanamisra’s wife, Bharati, who was also a very learned person, agreed to serve as the referee.

According to traditional accounts, the debate lasted eighteen days. They began by agreeing on the authority of the Vedas, and both of them demonstrated their mastery of the classic texts by extensive quotes, explanation of their intricate meanings, and references to authorities. At every turn, through carefully constructed arguments, Śanijkara established, to Bharati’s satisfaction, that all scriptures ultimately teach the superiority of the way of knowledge over the way of ritualism. He insisted that the main teaching of the Vedas is that Brahman alone is real and ātman is identical with Brahman. Convinced that rituals serve only a subordinate role in one’s quest for salvation and that the superior path to salvation is knowledge of Brahman itself, Mandanamisra finally yielded and accepted Śanijkara’s discipleship.

Śanijkara’s biographers also note that at the end of his victorious journeys, hearing about his mother’s ill health, Śanijkara returned home to perform her final rites as he had promised. Although he was a sannyāsin, he insisted on conducting his mother’s funeral rites, a privilege reserved only to priests. After the cremation of her body, he traveled north and died in a cave in an unknown location as sannyāsins of the time preferred to end their life.

During his pilgrimages, Śanijkara not only engaged in public disputations but also wrote many works. Although more than three hundred works are attributed to him, most of them are not considered authentic. His most important work is the Brahmasūtrabhāsya (early eighth century; The Vedānta Sūtras of Bādarāyana with the Commentary of Samkara, 1890-1904), a commentary on Bādarāyana’s Brahmasūtra, which is considered a major document of the Vedānta school. He also wrote commentaries on twelve principal Upaniṣads and The Bhagavad Gita. These three commentaries constitute the canon of the Advaita system. He also wrote a commentary on Patañjali’s Yogasūtra. His other works include Upadesasāhasrī (early eighth century; A Thousand Teachings, 1949) and Vivekachudamani (early eighth century, authorship questionable; The Crest Jewel of Wisdom, 1890).

Śanijkara’s commentaries on the classical Indian texts are among the densest Indian philosophical treatises. He consistently teaches that knowledge of Brahman, the absolute, is the one sure path to final release from the cycle of transmigration and that ātman, one’s true self, is identical with Brahman. He insists that realization of these fundamental truths, contained in the Upaniṣads and the Vedas, constitutes both the means and the end of the human striving for salvation. The philosophical problem of explaining the distinction between Brahman and the consciousness of individual self is resolved by his famous theory of māyā (illusion) and avidyā (nescience), concepts that are very complex in their details. Nevertheless, Śanijkara’s Advaita system remains the most dominant school of Indian thought.

One of Śanijkara’s lasting legacies is the establishment of several monasteries and centers of learning known as Mathas in various parts of India. It is difficult to ascertain how many of these Mathas were actually founded by him. Four of the most famous Mathas that claim their origin in Śanijkara are Dwaraka (Sadaramatha, west), Sringeri (Sringerimatha, south), Puri (Govardhanamatha, east), and Badarinatha (Jyotirmatha, north). Interestingly, these are located in the four regions of India, symbolizing the claim that Śanijkara was the unquestionable teacher for all of India. Śanijkara is said to have appointed four of his most trusted disciples Padmapada, Sureshwara, Hastamalaka, and Trotaka to head these Mathas. The successors of these monastic heads eventually assumed the title of Śanijkarācārya to claim their lineage to Śanijkara himself.

Significance

The significance of Śanijkara’s spiritual conquest of the intellectual landscape of India is enormous and explains why Indian philosophers and theologians hold him in such a high regard even today. The eighth century saw many threats to the dominance of Hinduism. Two of these major threats were the spread of Buddhism , which openly rejected the traditions of Brahmanism, and the splintering of Hinduism into competing sects. Buddhists taught the importance of spiritual enlightenment and self-conquest through asceticism for attaining liberation from saṃsāra (the cycle of birth and rebirth). They rejected the spiritual value of Brahmanism with its mindless devotion to dharma (duty) and elaborate ritualism.

Śanijkara felt it was necessary to counter Buddhism on philosophical grounds while incorporating some of its insights. He agreed with the Buddhists that wearing a sacred thread and a tuft of hair or performing sacrifices did not ensure salvation. In fact, because of his critical stance toward Brahmanic ritualism, his opponents sometimes criticized him as a disguised Buddhist. However, he was a Hindu reformer who accepted what was valuable in the Buddhist rejection of ritualism and sought to revive what he saw as the original teachings of Vedānta.

Śanijkara attempted to face the second threat the growing divisions within Hinduism by reviving its intellectual vitality and correcting the errors of the leaders of various sects through public discourses. His opponents included Saivites, Vaisnavites, Saurites, Saktas, and Kapalikas. By prevailing over these competing philosophical systems, he sought to establish Advaita Vedānta as representing the true Vedic tradition. Although there are many Hindus who belong to other sects and competing interpretations of the Vedas and Upaniṣads are still in existence, Śanijkara’s Advaita Vedānta dominates the Indian philosophical landscape.

Bibliography

Bader, Jonathan. Conquest of Four Quarters: Traditional Accounts of the Life of Sankara. New Delhi, India: Aditya Prakasan, 2000. Bader critically examines the principal hagiographies of Śanijkara and provides a framework for understanding the cultural context in which the Śanijkara story is told.

Chenkner, William. A Tradition of Teachers: Sankara and the Jagadgurus Today. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidas, 1983. Chenkner provides valuable insights into Śanijkara’s life and work by placing him in India’s classical tradition of itinerant gurus. He also focuses on the special relationship between teacher and student in the context of Indian tradition.

Madugula, I. S. The Acarya Sankara of Kaladi: A Story. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidas, 1985. Although the author does not try to separate historical facts from legends, Madugula’s work weaves the story of Śanijkara with his teachings in an interesting and highly readable manner.

Mayeda, Sengaku. A Thousand Teachings: The “Upadesasahasri” of Sankara. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992. In this new edition and translation of one of Śanijkara’s original works, Mayeda presents an excellent introduction to the life and works of Śanijkara in a fashion that is easily understood by the general reader.

Mudugal, G. S. Advaita of Sankara, a Reappraisal: Impact of Buddhism and Samkhya on Sankara’s Thought. Delhi, India: Motilal Banarsidas, 1975. Mudugal presents a very useful discussion to help understand the competing intellectual positions against which Śanijkara developed the Advaita system.