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SKETCH OF THE 



means be determined. I have, in another place, expressed my belief that 

 he may have existed about the eighth or ninth century.* Subsequent 

 enquiry has failed to add any reasons to those assigned for such an infer- 

 ence ; but it has offered nothing to weaken or invalidate the conclusion 

 there proposed. f 



* Preface to the Sanscrit Dictionary, page XVII. 



f A Hdlahdnara Manuscript, in the possession of the late Col. Mackenzie, entitled Sankara 

 Vijaya, (Mackenzie Collection 11, 34) gives the following list of the spiritual heads of the Sringeri 

 establishment: 



1. Govinda Piida. 



2. Sankara Acharya. 



3. Sanandana Acharya. 



4. Surasura Acharya. 



5. Trotaka Acharya. 



6. Hastamalaka Acharya. 



7. Jnyannghana Acharya. 



8. Jnyanottama Acharya. 



9. Sinhagiriswara Acharya. 



10. Iswaratirtha Acharya. 



11. Nrisinha Murtti Acharya. 



12. Vitarana Acharya. 



13. Vidyasankara Acharya. 

 34. Bharati Krishna Acharya. 

 15. "Vidyasanya Acharya. 



16. Chandra Sekhara Acharya. 



17. Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. 



18. Sankara Bharati Acharya. 



19. Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. " 



20. Purushottoraa Bharati Acharya. 



21. Ramachandra Bharati Acharya. 



22. Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. 



23. Immadi Bharati Acharya. 



24. Abhinava Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. 



25. Sachchidananda Bharati Acharya. 



26. Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. 



27. Immadi Sachchidananda Bharati Acharya. 



28. Abhinava Sachchidananda Bharatia Acharya. 



29. Nrisinha Bharati Acharya. 



This gives 27 descents from Sankaka. As the Mahant is elected from the disciples, either 

 by the Guru when about to die, or by the Swdmalu, the spiritual chiefs of other establishments of 

 the same sect, he is raised probably to the station in the prime of manhood, and in the ease and dig- 

 nity of his sanctity has a favourable prospect of a long life. Twenty-five years to a Guru may there- 

 fore be but a fair average allowance, and the above list comprises at that rate an interval of 657 

 years: at what period it closes does not appear; but the Hdlahdnara language is obsolete, and the 

 work is possibly not less than two or three centuries old. This series of Gurus is so far corroborative 

 of the view elsewhere taken of Sankara's date ; but as it has been extracted by a Pandit, from a 

 work which I could not consult myself, it is by no means certain that it is correct, and I do not 

 wish to attach any undue importance to the authority. 



