कनकधारास्तोत्रं सानुवादम् /11

INTRODUCTION
 

 
Śanṅkara was not only undoubtedly the greatest of

intellectuals of his age but also the greatest inspirer of
devotion among devotees, a transformer of even the

devotion among devotees, a transformer of even the
most unbelieving atheists into the stream of faith, who
plunging with gusto, developed greater devoutness than

plunging with gusto, developed greater devoutness than
even that of the already most devoted.
 

 
Śanṅkara was tender-hearted. A young boy, as a

brahmachari he was going abegging to five houses for his

daily food, as was the wont in ancient India for pupils
under their teacher in the period of learning the great

under their teacher in the period of learning the great
parāvidyā. Only five years old and so young, so kind-
hearted, he was so touched when at one of the houses he
saw a hapless widow in such indigent plight that she

hearted, he was so touched when at one of the houses he
saw a hapless widow in such indigent plight that she
could just offer him a small berry, that he burst into
poetry at the sad sight of her poverty and prayed to the

poetry at the sad sight of her poverty and prayed to the
Goddess of Prosperity to shower on her all Her grace

and Her splendour, Her munificence in the form of

gold. There was a rain, literally of gold, and the hymn

that he composed, a short one of twenty-five verses is

named Kanakadhārā stava, the hymn of the stream of

golden downpour.
 

 
From the earliest times in India, there has been the

idea of prosperity and plenty in a rain itself of pros-
perity, simulating the downpour of laden clouds on the
earth, of a rain of gold, of a rain of cloth, of a rain of

perity, simulating the downpour of laden clouds on the
earth, of a rain of gold, of a rain of cloth, of a rain of
corn. The goddess of prosperity Herself has been

conceived in eight forms, as Dhanalakshmi, goddess of