An overview of the Saṅkṣipta-Śaṅkaradigvijaya of Jayamaṅgalācārya

Abstract

The life of Ādi Śaṅkarācārya as it is known to us today is exclusively based on these works which are commonly known as the Śaṅkara-Vijayas. As far as the Śaṅkara-Vijayas are concerned, despite their central theme being the same, it is found that the biographical accounts are largely divergent and they differ from each other on several vital aspects of the Ācārya’s life such as the age of renunciation, the place of meeting his Guru,the identity of his disciples, the place of his disappearance etc. Many accounts on the life of the Ācārya are found to be factually inaccurate in these texts which are of a hagiographical nature. Notwithstanding the aforesaid lacunae, these texts serve as the terminus a quo in an effort to reconstruct the life of the Ācārya on a factual and rational basis as each of these is a source of some or the other valuable information on the life of the Ācārya.