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Date: Sat Mar 03 2001 - 21:15:28 PST
Here are some old passages on various Brahmasutra bhashyas or works on
Vedanta ( I am omitting the bibliographic information of the books I
have
referred but there is a selected biblio at the end):
1. Prapanchahridaya:
In an anonymous work called Prapanchahridaya, the following
description is
given about the commentators of the Mimamsa Sastra and its various
portions:
"The Mimamsa Sastra is contained in a text of 20 chapters. Of these,
the
first 16 chapters constitute the Purva Mimamsa.. Of this Mimamsa
Sastra, the
Purvakanda deals on issues of Dharma, and is compiled by Jaimini. The
last 4
chapters constitute the Uttara Kanda or the Uttara Mimamsa and are
compiled
by Vyasa for dealing with the nature of Brahman. On this Mimamsa
Sastra of
20 chapters, Bodhayana wrote a Bhasya that bore the name `Krtakoti.'
Fearing
that the great length of this commentary would cast it into oblivion,
Upavarsa somewhat abridged it. `Even this commentary might be
considered too
voluminous for study by people of dull wit'- fearing thus, Devasvamin
considerably abridged Upavarsa's already abridged commentary
considerably.
Bhavadasa also wrote a commentary on Jaimini's Sastra. Of the 2 kandas
comprising the Dharma Mimamsa Sastra, Sabara wrote a very brief
commentary
on the Tantra Kanda (Chaps 1-12), ignoring the second kanda- Samkarsa
Kanda.
And likewise, Sankarsana (textual variant- Samkarsa) wrote a brief
commentary on the Devata Kanda. On the Brahma Kanda (Brahma Sutras),
Bhagvatpada (Samkara), Brahmadatta and Bhaskara etc. too wrote
commentaries
with different interpretations of the Sutras."
Significantly, the list does not mention other ancient Vedantins like
Dramida, Tanka etc. who definitely wrote on the Brahmasutras. Also,
while
the list of commentators of Purva Mimamsa is chronological, this is
not the
case with the list of commentators of Brahma Sutras. For instance, we
know
that Brahmadatta preceded Samkara and Bhaskara succeeded him. So, we
may
assume that the author of Prapancahrydaya places Samkara at the head
of this
list out of regard for him or that the work Bhagavan indeed qualifies
Brahmadatta as well as Bhaskara. In the latter case, the omission of
Samkara
would indeed be puzzling.
The list is silent about other ancient Mimamsakas like Bhartmitra and
Bhartrhari. The word `api' while describing the Bhasya of Bhavadasa
indicates that his commentary was an independent work, often at
variance
with the traditional mode of interpretation of Purva Mimamsa sutras,
but we
cannot be sure of this.
2. Atmasiddhi of Yamunacarya:
" Even though Bhagavan Badrayana has composed sutras that have
precisely the
same purpose (as my present work) and these sutras were explained by
the
Bhasyakrt (Dramida Bhasyakrt in some manuscripts), whose language is
both
concise and profound, and then they were expounded in great detail by
the
Bhagavan Srivatsanka Misra himself whose language is a deep ocean of
nyaya (
gambhira nyaya sagar)".
The text continues- " Nevertheless, many persons have had their
judgment
corrupted by giving their credence to various writings of uneven
quality
that have correct and incorrect ideas interwoven through them like
warp and
woof, books such as those composed by Acarya Tanka, Bhartrprapanca,
Bhartrmitra, Bhartrhari, Brahmadatta, Samkara, Srivatsanka, Bhaskara
etc.
Since persons who have been confused in this way do not understand
things as
they really are and have many erroneous conceptions, the undertaking
of this
work or discussion with the aim of establishing a (clear,
comprehensive and
definitive) understanding (pratipatti) of the (atman and paramatman)
is
proper."
In this text, the Bhasyakrt is often identified with Dramidacarya.
The way
in which the Bhasyakrt is cited suggests that he is a prestigious
authority
of both Yamunacarya as well as his opponents.
The list appears to be chronological. The omission of Kapardi and
Guhadeva
is also noteworthy.
3. Vedarthasamgraha of Sri Ramanuja
Bhagavan Ramanujacarya, in his Vedarthasamgraha, mentions six
teachers of
Vedanta before him, who were the expounders of Visishtadvaita
philosophy.
Their names are given as
1. Bhagavadbodhayana
2. Tanka
3. Dramida
4. Guhadeva
5. Kapardi
6. Bharuchi
At the beginning of his commentary on Brahmasutras ( called the
Sribhasya),
he states- "The extensive gloss on the Brahmasutras by Bhagavan
Bodhayana
has been abridged by former teachers. In accordance with his views,
these
commentary is composed."
Ramanuja also quotes the views of Vakykara (also called Tanka or
Brahmanandin), Dramida and Bodhayana in Sribhasya and
Vedarthasamgraha with
attribution.
4. Yatindramatadipika of Srinivasadasa:
Srinivasadasa (17th Cent. C.E.), in the introduction of his
Yatindramatadipika (, gives a list of teachers as the predecessors of
Ramanuja in propounding the Visishtadvaita Vedanta:
1. Bhagavan Bodhayana
2. Guhadeva
3. Bharuchi
4. Brahmanandin (Tanka)
5. Dramida
6. Sri Parankusa ( Nammalvara Sathakopa)
7. Nathamuni
8. Yamunamuni
9. Ramanuja
Significantly, the name of Kapardi, which occurs in the
Vedarthsamgraha, is
missing in this list.
In the epilogue of the same work, Srinivasadasa mentions a list of
works (in
chronological order) which he had referred to compose the
Yatindramatadipika. The list is headed by `Dramidabhasya', followed
by works
of Nathamuni and so on. Surprisingly, no work of Guhadeva, Bharuchi
or Tanka
is mentioned in the list.
5. Sesha, the commentator on the Madhava Vijaya of Narayana Bhatta,
states
that Madhavacharya refuted 21 Bhasyas on the Sariraka Sutras that were
written by teachers before him. These are enumerated as-
1. Bharativijaya
2. Samvidaananda
3. Brahmaghosha
4. Shataananda
5. Vaagbhatta
6. Vijaya
7. Rudra Bhatta
8. Vamana
9. Yadava Prakasa
10. Ramanuja
11. Bhartrprapanca
12. Dravida
13. Brahmadatta
14. Bhaskara
15. Pisacha
16. Vrttikara
17. Vijaya Bhatta
18. Visnukranta
19. Vaadindra
20. Madhavadesaka
21. Samkaracarya
The list is clearly non-chronological. For example, the Vrttikaara,
the
oldest commentator on the Brahmasutras, is placed in the middle.
Moreover,
all these writers did not flourish before Samkaracarya (for instance
# 9,
10, 14, 15).
Gathering exact details about the views and personal information on
these
ancient teachers is a difficult task. I am in the process of creating
webpages on each of them and the one on Brahmadatta should be up by
next
week. For Sundara Pandya and Bharuchi, see the relevant webpages via
my
homepage at
http://www.voi.org/vishal_agarwal/homepage.html
(Note that the link of Brahmadatta is not yet active)
Some useful references:
Mimamsaka, Yuddhishthhira; 1977; Mimamsa-sabarabhashyam, Vol. I;
Ramalal
Kapoor Trust, Bahalgarh, Distt. Sonepat, Haryana (In Hindi or
Sanskrit- see
the introd.)
Kane, P. V.; 1928; Vedanta Commentators before
Sankaracarya; "Proceedings
and Transactions, Fifth Indian Oriental Conference"; Vol. 2, pg. 937-
953
Pandey, Sangam Lal; 1983; Pre Samkara Advaita Philosophy; Darshan
Peeth,
Allahabad, India. First published in 1974. Reprinted in 1983
Thangaswami, R; 1980; Advaita-Vedanta Literature, A Bibliographical
Survey;
University of Madras; Madras (In Sanskrit)
Udayvira Shastri; 1970; Vedanta Darsana ka Itihasa; Virajananda
Vaidika
Sodha Samsthana; Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh)--in Hindi
J. A. B. van Buitenen; Ramanuja's Vedarthasamgraha; Deccan College
Postgraduate and Research Institute; Poona; 1956 (See appendix and
introd.)
S. Kuppuswami Sastri; Bodhayana and Dramidacarya, Two old Vedantins
presupposed by Ramanuja; "Proceedings and Transactions of 3rd
Oriendtal
Conference"; Vo. 53, pg. 468-472; 1924
D. H. H. Ingalls; "The Study of Sankaracarya"; "Bhandarkar Oriental
Research
Institute"; vol. 33, part 1-4, pg.1-14, 1952; Poona, India
Mysore Hiriyanna; "Fragments of Bhartrprapanca"; Proceedings of All
India
Oriental Conference; Vol. 3, pg. 439-450, 1924
Mysore Hiriyanna; "Bhartrprapanca-An old Vedantin"; Indian Antiquary;
vol.
53, pgs. 77-86; 1924
A. Sankaran; "The Vrttikaragrantha"; Journal of Oriental Research;
Vol. 1,
pg. 283-286; 1927
Mysore Hiriyanna; Brahmadatta: An old Vedantin; Journal of Oriental
Research; Vol. 2, pg. 1-9, 1928
Mysore Hiriyanna; "Fragments from Brahmanandin"; "Commemorative Essays
Presented to Prof. Kashinath Bapuji Pathak" Class B. No. 7; Bhandarkar
Institute Press, Poona, India
V. A. Ramaswami Sastri; "Old Vrttikaras on the Purvamimamsasutras";
Indian
Historical Quaterly; Vol. 10, pg. 431-452, 1934
Hajime Nakamure; A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy; Motilal
Banarsidass;
Delhi, India
Regards
Vishal
Homepage- http://www.voi.org/vishal_agarwal/homepage.html
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