Tamil Arts Volume 16
Epigraphical reference to Adi Sankara
Dr. R. Nagaswamy
The news of the recent discovery of a Cōḻā inscription, dated in the reign of Vīra Rajendra (1065 C.E.) in the Kailāsanātha temple of Cōḻāmahādevi village near Tiruchi in Tamil Nadu would be received with great interest by Indologists all over the world.
The temple is in a dilapidated condition and no worship is offered in the temple now. The well preserved record is in Tamil language and script, with a few Sanskrit words written in Grantha characters in between. I give below my reading and disuss the historic importance of the record. This inscription records the gift of land to scholars of the villages expounding a commentary named Pradīpaka alias Vārtika written by Chidānanda Bhaṭṭāra. This commetary was on Brahmastura Śaṅkara Bhāṣya mentioned in the record as Bhagavadpādiyam alias Sāriraka Bhāṣyam. This is what makes the record of historic interest.
The study of Vedanta was known in ancient times as Sāriraka Mīmāmsā. Śaṅkara himself calls his commentary on the Brahmasutra Sāriraka Mīmāmsā Śastra. It is this Bhāṣyam that is mentioned in the inscription as Sāriraka Bhāṣyam. Further the inscription shows that Śaṅkara Bhāṣyam on Brahmasūtras was known as the Bhagavadpādiyam in Cōḻā times.
There are differing views among modern scholars on the date of Śaṅkara and his woks. This is the earliest dated and indisputable reord so far known referring to Śaṅkara and his works. That Śaṅkara lived before 1000 C.E. is now indisputable. Over one hundred commentaries on Śaṅkara Bhāṣyam are known from manuscripts and citations, but Chidānanda Bhaṭṭāraka’s Pradīpaka mentioned in this inscription is not found in any manuscript or text. Obviously, this commentary which had attracted so much attention in Cōḻā times has not survived.
Further, the village Cōḻāmahādevi was a new settlement created by the great Cōḻā emperor Rājarāja around 1000 C.E. A study of inscriptions elsewhere as at Eṇṇāyiram. Tirumukkūṭal, Tribhuvani, Ānūr and othr placs shows that the study of Vedanta was greatly patronished in the reign of Rājarāja, Rājēndra and their Cōḻā successors. That Śaṅkara’s commentary was very popular in Tamil Nadu is further confirmed by this record.
Not much is known about the date and life of Chidānanda, the commentator mentioned in this inscription, except that he wrote the commentary before 1,065 C.E., the date of this record.
According to the traditional accounts of the Kāñchi Śaṅkara Maṭ, one of the Pīṭadhipatis was Chidsukhanandendra Sarawati, who was also called Chidānanda. He is said to have hailed from a village on the banks of the river Pālāru in Tamil Nadu and is said to have attained salvation at Kāñchi. It is difficult to say whether this Ācharya was the same as the Chidānanda mentioned in the Cōḻāmahādevi inscription.