such as to consider these as opposed to each other but are only
such as to supplement each other. In section 3 of his Introduction,
when he attempts a tentative and comparative chronolcgy of the
writers of the 7th and 8th centuries, it is significant tilat Professor Kuppuswami Sastri assigns Mandana to 615 to 695 A.D
whereas he assigns Visvarupacarya (Suresvaracarya) to 620 to 700
A.D., thus making the latter an younger contemporary of the
former by a mere five years. If both these lived so near to each
other, it is impossible to imagine that he latter would incorporate
in extense large extracts from the former, without any kind of
acknowledgment, particularly when we are asked to believe that
the two were opposed to each other doctrinally. [१]
We have shown how the doctrinal differences such as they are between Mandana and Suresvara are neither unnatural in the circumstances of the case nor wholly and fundamentally opposed to each other.
Indeed, Vyasacala narrates in detail in canto VII of his Sankaravijaya [२] the several stages in the conversion of Suresvara. On being converted into a sannyasin and after being instructed in the truths of the Advaita, Sankara called on him to write a Varttika on his Sutra-Bhasya, whereon the assembled pupils of both objected to Suresvara being commissioned to do such a task as he was not really converted, as he was an incurable karmatha and did not believe in sannyasa, and as he had driven away many sannyasins and would only find it an opportunity to reinterpret the Sutra-Bhasya to favour his own Mimamsaka ideals. We are told that Sankara was very much pained at this outburst of the assembled pupils and commissioned Visvarupa to write an independent treatise. And Visvarupa wrote the Naiskarmyasiddhi which gladdened the heart of his guru. When he saw that his guru was really pleased, Visvarupa said that he did not write his work for fame or profit or for flattery, but merely because he was convinced of the truths imparted to him by his guru and added that there was nothing incompatible in any one changing his doctrines when one felt convinced, even as human nature is not always consistent and it changes from boyhood to youth and youth to old age ; even so one changes doctrinally when he changes from a grhastha and becomes a sannyasin. Visvarupa appeals to sankara to believe in his true conversion and adds that though he had already written many works in various fields, his only desire thereafter was to serve at his guru's feet. Delighted at this frank confession Sankara ordered Visvarupa to write a Varttika on the
- ↑ See Ramakrishna Kavi's Article on 'The identity of Surekana' in Vol. V of the Journal of the Andhra Historical Research society, Rajahmundry.
- ↑ A paper copy in Devanagari script is available in the G.O. Mss. Library transcribed from the original in palm•leaf preserved in the Tanjore Palace Library.
