[Advaita-l] Advaita-l Digest, Vol 228, Issue 5

sunil bhattacharjya skbhattacharjya at gmail.com
Thu Jul 6 15:25:41 EDT 2023


Subject: Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Subject: Lalitha Sahsranama -
Saundaryalahari

Dear Shri Jaldhar.

1)
My query: Advaitin teachers today imagine that Adi Shankara had written the
book
"Saundaryalahari", but they had not been able to say as to how they arrived
at that conclusion.

You responded saying as follows:
The same way they arrive at most conclusions -- through parampara.

My reply is that it will be convincing if you back it with some documented
proof,

2)
In response to my following statement
In fact,to my understanding, the first portion consisting of 41 verses of
 that book is called "Anandalahari", was composed by a brahmin king.

You wrote as follows:
There are at least 36 known tikas on Saundarylahari. 35 consider
Shankaracharya to be the author.  One says the authors father a king (not
a Brahmana) named Pravarasena is the author.  Well, anyone can come up
with a crackpot theory it doesn't mean the rest of the world needs to pay
attention to it.

My reply:You did not name a single source out of the 35. why this
injustice?
Some say a Bhakataka (brahmin) king wrote the Ananda lahari.  Some sat
Pravarasena was a descendent or relative  of the brahmin king
SriharshaVikranaditya.


3)
I wrote
 The   second portion of that book, consisting of 59 verses of that book, is
called  "Saundaryalahari", and that was composed  by the great Navavatara,
Shri Abhinava Shankaracharya, who was born in the 8th century AD.

You wrote:
There is no such person.  If you are going to make these kind of
outlandish assertions back them up with evidence.

I will request you kindly to see the Guruparampara list of the Kanchi
Kamakoti math and you will find thename of the Abhinava shankara.

My 2 cents
Sunil K Bhattacharjya

On Thu, Jul 6, 2023 at 8:59 AM <advaita-l-request at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
wrote:

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> Today's Topics:
>
>    1. Re: Subject: Lalitha Sahsranama - Saundaryalahari
>       (jaldhar at braincells.com)
>    2. Re: Subject: Lalitha Sahsranama - Saundaryalahari
>       (jaldhar at braincells.com)
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: jaldhar at braincells.com
> To: sunil bhattacharjya via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> >
> Cc: Advaitin <advaitin at googlegroups.com>, hinducivilization at groups.io
> Bcc:
> Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2023 15:36:59 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Subject: Lalitha Sahsranama - Saundaryalahari
> On Sun, 25 Jun 2023, sunil bhattacharjya via Advaita-l wrote:
>
> > Dear friends,
> >
> > Please correct me if I am wrong, I have the impression that most of the
> > Advaitin teachers today imagine that Adi Shankara had written the book
> > "Saundaryalahari", but they had not been able to say as to how they
> arrived
> > at that conclusion.
>
> The same way they arrive at most conclusions -- through parampara.
>
>
> > In fact,to my understanding, the first portion consisting of 41 verses of
> > that book is called "Anandalahari", was composed by a brahmin king.
>
> There are at least 36 known tikas on Saundarylahari. 35 consider
> Shankaracharya to be the author.  One says the authors father a king (not
> a Brahmana) named Pravarasena is the author.  Well, anyone can come up
> with a crackpot theory it doesn't mean the rest of the world needs to pay
> attention to it.
>
>
> > The
> > second portion of that book, consisting of 59 verses of that book, is
> > called  "Saundaryalahari", and that was composed  by the great
> Navavatara,
> > Shri Abhinava Shankaracharya, who was born in the 8th century AD.
>
> There is no such person.  If you are going to make these kind of
> outlandish assertions back them up with evidence.
>
> Now there are some different stories about the origin of Anandalahari.
> One is that as Shiva was expounding the mantrashastra to Shakti on the
> shores of Manasarovara, a fish oveheard them and was instantly
> enlightened.  Known as Minanatha or Matsyendranatha (Machhendranath etc.)
> this figure is revered as a guru in many tantrik/Shaiva sampradayas. When
> Shankaracharya went on a yatra to Kailasa, he met Matsyendranatha and on
> the basis of their conversation composed Anandalahari and later completed
> it with an additional 59 verses of Saundaryalahari.  Other accounts say it
> was Shiva Bhagavan directly who taught him directly.  In any case, it is
> still Shankaracharya who is considered the author.
>
>
> n Mon, 26 Jun 2023, Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l wrote:
>
> >  For example, late Prof. SKR, who was headed Kalpataru saMshOdhana
> > Kendra herein Bengaluru outrightly rejected soundaryalahari's authorship
> > by bhAshyakAra citing the reason that it is purely a taNtra based work!!
>
> As we discussed previously, we now have a lot more information on the
> historical status and prevalance of Tantra than was available to Prof. SKR
> or earlier historians.
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>
>
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: jaldhar at braincells.com
> To: Advaita-L <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2023 15:47:01 -0400 (EDT)
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Subject: Lalitha Sahsranama - Saundaryalahari
> On Wed, 5 Jul 2023, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l wrote:
>
> > There are at least 36 known tikas on Saundarylahari. 35 consider
> > Shankaracharya to be the author.
>
> Sorry one more thing I would like to add is this discussion is all well
> and good but it doesn't answer the original question viz.correspondance of
> Saundaryalahari to Lalita Sahasranama.  Does anyone have any information
> on this?
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>
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