Dear Sri Vedanti
Namaskarams again. I continue to place my reply before you.
You had given the following as proof of Shankara Matham at Kanchi not being founded by Sri Adi Shankara:
Also Shiva Stavam By Appaya/neelakanta Dikshitar Also Refers To The Same
I have not read the stated work of Sri Appayya Dikshitar. I am ignorant of this. I will try to get to it, have it read and explained to me. I do not know if I will be blessed to get near it. I made an enquiry with an elderly scholar as to this work named Shiva Stavam by Sri Appayya Dikshitar. He said that Dikshitar had rendered at least 104 works in Sanskrit and to his little knowledge "Shiva Stavam" did not figure in that. He remembered that Sri Appayya Dikshitar had rendered "Varadaraja Stavam" "Apitakuchamba Stavam" and "Shanti Stavam" He stated that these were in the nature of praise of the respective God or Goddess and not in the nature of any history. He added that the work may carry a different name too as most of the literary works carry more than one name. He has asked me to request you to please inform if there is another name for this work or as to whether and where one could get access to it. He added that Sri Appayya Dikshitar was a philosopher and not a historian. Though he was a Chief Minister in a kingdom, he had written only about philosophy, advaita, visishtatvaita, dvaita , bhashyams or commentaries, or stotras on Vishnu, Shiva or Shakti. His mentioning about the Shringeri or Kanchi Matham in his works would be far from reality was his view.
The logic goes thus: If the Shankara Matham was existing in Kanchipuram during his life time, he need not have referred to it. If it did not exist as claimed by some (not all) followers of Shringeri Matham, he still need not have referred to it. Needless to say, he would not have said that the Kanchi Matham was not founded by Adi Shankara as claimed by some (and not all) followers of Shringeri Matham, who even now claim that only during the life time of Paramacharya Sri Chandrasekarendra Saraswati Swamigal, the Shankaracharya in the Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham lineage, that the Matham was founded by Adi Shankara.
Sri Appayya Dikshitar's family deity (Kula Devata) was Sri Margabandhuswamy. These days many claim to be Appayya Dikshitar's Vamsam and "good lot" of them are followers of Shringeri. "Sir" C.P.Ramasamy Iyer's siblings are among them. All these claimants to the lineage of Sri Appayya Dikshitar do not worship Sri Margabandhuswamy as the Kula Devata, which proves their false claim to the lineage of Sri Appayya Dikshitar. These are the ones who state that Sri Dikshtar was a follower of Shringeri and I presume that you have quoted Sri Dikshitar arising out of such hearsay. Hearsay is not history. Our traditions, gothras, pravarams above all Kula Devata give us the vital lead to various points in history. I can say that Sri Dikshitar was a follower of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham as I know personally some in the real vamsavali of Sri Dikshitar and they even to day are the followers of Sri Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham and they have Sri Margabandhuswamy as the Kuladevata.