A perspective on how Adi Sankaracharya tried to destroy Hinduism

by Guest Thu Mar 12, 2015 8:19 pm

incidentially, the great contempt of the dvaita vedantists for advaita vedanta is not that well known. encylopaedia of religion and ethics (ere) volume 8 page 232-233 contains some useful information in this regard. (the views in the encylopaedia are primarily based on two dvaita texts--"madhvavijaya"(mv), and "manimanjari"(mm)-- both of which were written by narayana, a son of trivikrama, who was a direct disciple of madhavacharya (madhava) who was the founder of Dvaita Vedanta. relevant extracts from the ere given below:
-------
in the vana-parvana(mm iii.11,661f.)it is related that Bhima attacked certain yaksas or raksasas, belonging to the country beyond the himalya, and killed their leader Manimat.manimat had earlier offerred a filthy insult to the indian sage agastya (the apostle of southern india)....the narrative of the events in the kaliyuga, or present age of the world, commences in the 5th sarga of mm. at first, the knowledge of the vedas, as taught by krsna and bhima(mm v.1), reigns supereme. then the asuras conspired to spread false doctrines. the demon sakuni...points out that other heresies...had all failed (9-15). therefore manimat, who alone had enough skill, must become incarnate as a brahman ascetic, and must destroy the vedanta under cover of explaining it (15ff.). manimat is dispatched with instructions to abolish the vedas and puranas, to ridicule the theory that visnu has gunas, or qualities, and to establish the identity of the soul with brahman. [note that, according to dvaita, brahman is endowed with all the auspicious attributes ("saguna"), while according to advaita, brahmana is devoid of any attributes ("nirguna")]

here (29), the story digresses to tell how at that time the whole earth was under the sway of budhism, and to describe the sway of budhism, and to describe the efforts of sabara and kumarila to refute it by the aid of the purva mimansa.... the 6th sarga continues this, narrating the success of kumarila... at this stage of affairs, manimat is born as a widow's bastard (mm v1.3, mv i.46). he is hence named samkara (the madhva books uniformly change the great samkara's[represented in the encyclopaedia with a dot over the s] name to samkara [no dot over the s])the object is plain. samkara [with dot over the s] means "auspicious", but samkara [with no dot] "misbegotten" or "rubbish". he is brought up in great poverty, and (as a slap at the monism subsequently taught by him), it is related that in his boyhood he could count only one thing at a time, never being able to see a second(mm, v1.10).he is taken to saurastra, where...he quickly masters the sacred books. he then goes from teacher to teacher, but is turned off by them for his heretical views. he invents his doctrine, described as "sunya-marga" and "nirgunatva" and is hailed by the demons as their savior (24).on their advice he joins the budhists and teaches budhism under cover of vedantism. he makes the vedas without meaning, and equates brahman with nothingness ("sunyatva") (46).he becomes a sakta, and messenger of bhairavi, who confers upon him a magic spell (51).

the 7th sarga describes further disgraceful events in sanmkara's life. he seduces the wife of his brahman host (1ff.). he makes converts by magic arts. he falls sick and dies. his last words are instructions to his disciples to uproot the learned satyaprajna, the last of the great teachers of the vedic doctrine.

in the 8th sarga we have the doings of samkara's followers. they persecute their opponents, burning down monasteries, destroying cattle-pens, and by magic arts killing women and children (2). they forcibly convert one of their chief opponents, prajnatirtha, and compel him and his disciples to adopt the "maya" system (5). these, however, still secretly adhere to the true religion....
...the book[mm] ends with a brief account of madhva's work, specially mentioning that he composed a commentary on the "vedanta-sutra" utterly destroying that made by the thief manimat-samkara.