hastAmalakIya Slokas

Vidyasankar Sundaresan vidya at CCO.CALTECH.EDU
Thu May 23 23:36:36 CDT 1996


hastAmalaka is one of the four well-known disciples of SankarAcArya. He is
said to have been dumb all his life, till his father brought him to Sankara.
When Sankara asked him who he was, the child replied in a set of verses that
showed that here was no ordinary child, but a completely self-realized sage.

This acccount of hastAmalaka is found in some of the available Sankara-vijayams.
Whatever be the veracity of this story, the fact remains that these Slokas
are the only known composition attributed to anybody called hastAmalaka. Karl
Potter has published the English translation of the hastAmalakIya Slokas
by Prof. Edeltraud Harzer-Clear in the third volume of the "Encyclopedia of
Indian Philosophies".

If anyone on the advaita list has the original Sanskrit verses, I would
very much appreciate it if it was posted here. I have been trying to locate
a good source for the original verses, in order to put them up as a gif file
on the advaita home page, but without much success. Any leads to secondary
references would also be useful.

Thanks,

S. Vidyasankar



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