Hostile Accounts and Controversies

We can see there are also a few unfavourable references to the personality of Śri Śaṅkara. They are found in the very late Dvaita works, Mādhavavijaya and Manimañjari of Nārāyaṇa Ācārya and in the History of Buddhism in India by Taranatha, a Buddhist chronicler of the medieval Tibet. Perhaps on the basis of Anantagiri’s account of Śri Śaṅkara’s miraculous birth, the author raises doubts about the Ācārya’s legitimacy. The Tibetian chronicler writes how one Śaṅkarācārya, defeated in a debate by the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti, commited suicide by leaping into the deep waters of the Gaṅga.

About Śaṅkarācārya one thing is struck by the fact that almost of all the biographies come from South India. This shows that the South has been more devoted to religion and philosophy preached by Śaṅkarācārya. Ācārya himself came from the South. It may also be observed that all these Śaṅkara biographies, including those that claim to be quite old, may have to be assigned to the age of the Vijayanagara Empire and to subsequent ages. Moreover from Indian history we learned that during te age of Vijayanagara empire, the Hindu revivalism was more conspicous in the South than in the North.