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Re: question

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Mani Varadarajan • August 6, 1999 


Dear Sri Venkatesh

The works of Dramidacharya and Srivatsanka Mishra the earlier are
no longer extant. Fragments of the former's works have been quoted by 
Ramanuja and Sudarsana Suri.  Dramida, clearly an ancient Vedantin
from south India, was an Upanishad bhAshyakAra who commented primarily
on the Chhandogya Upanishad.  For this reason, in the pre-Ramanuja
period he is known as the 'bhAshyakAra'. (Ramanuja is also known by
this title, and bhAshyakAra now refers to him in our sampradAya).

All extant excerpts from Dramidacharya's bhAshya have been compiled in 
J.A.B. van Buitenen's critical edition of Ramanuja's "Vedarthasangraha".

Srivatsanka Mishra is cited as an authority by Sri Yamunacharya.
Unfortunately, we know nothing else about this author other than
what Yamuna tells us.  No fragments from his work remain, as far
as I know.

By the way, you write that there is a later Srivatsanka Mishra 
who was a follower of Sankara.  As far as I know, the only later
Srivatsanka Mishra is the famed Kurattalvan, Ramanuja's right-hand
man for whose temple renovation Sri Velukkudi Krishnan Swami is in the
process of raising funds.  The first famous "Mishra" who is a follower of
Sankara is the 9th-10th century author Vachaspati Mishra, who wrote
the "bhAmati", one of the classic expositions of Sankara's brahma-sUtra-
bhAshya.

Mani