2023-09-10 12:45:55 by ambuda-bot
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Introduction
flowing. The work was finished in the Laukika era 41 i.e. 1066
A.D. on the Tripuresa Mountain."
"4
XV
If we were to accept the above view of Suryakanta-that the Daśāvatāra-
carita was the first work to include the Buddha as an incarnation and that
it was written in 1066 AD- then the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra would have to
have been written after the period of Kṣemendra, i.e. no earlier than the
eleventh century. For he holds the view that the Daśavatāracarita may be
the first known work to present the ten incarnations in the exact order in
which they are enumerated in the 49th verse of the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra.
This would make the ascription of the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra to Sankara,
whose period is definitely well before that of Kṣemendra, extremely doubtful.
If, in this view, the stotra had anything to do with Sankara at all, then the
closest connection that could be assumed was that of its having been written
by one of the pontiffs of one of the Mathas held to have been established by
Śankara.
There is, however, an undated scripture of the Pañcaratra currently be-
ing prepared for publication by Dr. Diwakar Acharya that mentions all ten
incarnations in exactly the order given in our text.5 This hitherto unpub-
lished scripture, called the Devāmṛtapāñcarātra, identifies ten lines on an
image of Visnu that is being prepared for installation with the ten incar-
nations (12:2-7). Diwakar Acharya does not propose a specific date for the
composition of the Devāmṛtapāñcaratra, but he believes the work to be-
long to a small corpus of works that are earlier than all hitherto published
Pañcaratra scriptures, and earlier, therefore, than Kṣemendra, perhaps by
some centuries.
Matsya, Kürma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, [Paraśu-]Rama, In other
words, verse 49 is after all not such clear-cut evidence as it once seemed to
us to be for excluding the possibility that Sankara was the author of this
stotra.
Another possible criterion for a post-Sankara date is the fact that the
stotra appears to echo the Bhagavatapurāṇa (see, for example, verse 23 and
our notes on our translation thereof). Several scholars (see, e.g., Goodall
1996:xl quoting Friedhelm Hardy) believe that there is evidence to suggest
that the composition of the Bhagavatapurāṇa could not have taken place
before the ninth century.
Pūrṇasarasvatī, the commentator of the Visnupādādikeśastotra, has for
his part no doubt about attributing the work to, "the revered author of the
Suryakanta, p. 19.
5We are grateful to Dr. Diwakar Acharya for this information.
flowing. The work was finished in the Laukika era 41 i.e. 1066
A.D. on the Tripuresa Mountain."
"4
XV
If we were to accept the above view of Suryakanta-that the Daśāvatāra-
carita was the first work to include the Buddha as an incarnation and that
it was written in 1066 AD- then the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra would have to
have been written after the period of Kṣemendra, i.e. no earlier than the
eleventh century. For he holds the view that the Daśavatāracarita may be
the first known work to present the ten incarnations in the exact order in
which they are enumerated in the 49th verse of the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra.
This would make the ascription of the Viṣṇupādādikeśastotra to Sankara,
whose period is definitely well before that of Kṣemendra, extremely doubtful.
If, in this view, the stotra had anything to do with Sankara at all, then the
closest connection that could be assumed was that of its having been written
by one of the pontiffs of one of the Mathas held to have been established by
Śankara.
There is, however, an undated scripture of the Pañcaratra currently be-
ing prepared for publication by Dr. Diwakar Acharya that mentions all ten
incarnations in exactly the order given in our text.5 This hitherto unpub-
lished scripture, called the Devāmṛtapāñcarātra, identifies ten lines on an
image of Visnu that is being prepared for installation with the ten incar-
nations (12:2-7). Diwakar Acharya does not propose a specific date for the
composition of the Devāmṛtapāñcaratra, but he believes the work to be-
long to a small corpus of works that are earlier than all hitherto published
Pañcaratra scriptures, and earlier, therefore, than Kṣemendra, perhaps by
some centuries.
Matsya, Kürma, Varaha, Narasimha, Vamana, [Paraśu-]Rama, In other
words, verse 49 is after all not such clear-cut evidence as it once seemed to
us to be for excluding the possibility that Sankara was the author of this
stotra.
Another possible criterion for a post-Sankara date is the fact that the
stotra appears to echo the Bhagavatapurāṇa (see, for example, verse 23 and
our notes on our translation thereof). Several scholars (see, e.g., Goodall
1996:xl quoting Friedhelm Hardy) believe that there is evidence to suggest
that the composition of the Bhagavatapurāṇa could not have taken place
before the ninth century.
Pūrṇasarasvatī, the commentator of the Visnupādādikeśastotra, has for
his part no doubt about attributing the work to, "the revered author of the
Suryakanta, p. 19.
5We are grateful to Dr. Diwakar Acharya for this information.