SOURCE: "Approaches to the Study of Sankara" in Meditation in Sankara's Vedanta, Aditya Prakashan, 1990, pp. 7-24.

Below, Bader outlines various schools of Sankara scholarship, noting their strengths and weaknesses.

In 1952 Professor [Daniel H. H.] Ingalls called attention to the need for new efforts in the application of historical methods to the study of Sankara.¹ He suggested that the philosophical analysis of Sankara's thought could not proceed much further without the assistance of historical study. At this very time two other scholars, [Paul] Hacker and [Hajime] Nakamura, were engaged in research which was to give new direction to the study of Sankara.

Prior to the publication of several important papers by the late Paul Hacker, there was much uncertainty as to which of the several hundred compositions traditionally ascribed to Sankara could be regarded as genuine. The one notable exception is the Brahmasutra commentary which is, by definition, the...