anxious to show to the
world at large that their doctrines existed before the time of Sankara,
and that the Adwaitee doctrine was a deviation from their preexisting
orthodox Hinduism. And consequently they have assigned to him an
antiquity of less than 1,500 years.

It does not appear why Dr. Taylor thinks that he can allow Sankara about
900 years, or on what grounds Mr. Colebrooke is inclined to give him an
antiquity of about 1,000 years. No reliance can be placed on such
statements before the reasons assigned therefore are thoroughly sifted.

Fortunately, Mr. Wilson gives us the reason for Ram Mohun Roy's opinion.
We are inclined to believe that Ram Mohun Roy's calculation was made
with reference to the Sringeri list of Teachers or Gurus, as that was
the only list published up to this time; and as no other Matham, except
perhaps the Cumbaconum Matham, has a list of Gurus coming up to the
present time in uninterrupted succession. There is no necessity for
depending upon his calculation (which from its very nature cannot be
anything more than mere guesswork) when the old list preserved at
Sringeri contains the dates assigned to the various teachers. As these
dates have not been published up to the present time, and as Ram Mohun
Roy had merely a string of names before him, he was obliged to ascertain
Sankara's date by assigning a certain number of years on the average to
every teacher. Consequently, his opinion is of no importance whatever
when we have the statement of the Sringeri Matham which, as we have
already said, places Sankara some centuries before the Christian era.
The same remarks will apply to the calculation in question even if it
were made on the basis of the number of teachers contained in the list
preserved in the Cumbaconum Matham.

Very little importance can be attached to the oral evidence adduced by
some unknown persons before Dr. Buchanan in his travels through Malabar;
and we have only to consider the inferences that may be drawn from the
accounts contained in Kerala Utpatti. The various manuscript copies of
this work seem to differ in the date they assign to Sankaracharya; even
if the ease were otherwise, we cannot place any reliance upon this work,
for the following among other reasons:--

I. It is a well-known fact that the customs of Malabar are very
peculiar. Their defenders have been, consequently, pointing to some
great Rishi or some great philosopher of ancient India as their
le