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.
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