The GK, mANDUkya controversy and some other stuff

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Giri wrote:

> > Anandagiri's comment in the TIkA to the GK bhAshhya:
> > ----------------------------------------------------
> >
> > In the TIkA, Anandagiri says "there are many upanishhad-s in the atharva
 veda,
> > beginning with the brahma and garbha. However sha.nkara bhagavatpAda does
 not
> > quote them in the BSB since bAdarAyaNa has not used them" (paraphrased). I
> > found this in Deussen's "Philosophy of the Upanishads".
>
>         But Shankara does quote from the muNDaka upanishhad.h (Which is
> from the atharva veda) frequently in BSB (129 times, according to Paul

There is also an independent bhAshya by Sankara on the praSna, which
belongs to the atharvaveda.

> Duessen). Or do you mean Shankara does not quote from the _minor_
> upanishhad-s in the Atharva veda ? He does not quote from them in BSB (I
> think), but he quotes them in lalita trishati bhashya (attributed to him).
>
>         Further, in the list I have, brahma and garbha upanishhad-s are
> from the kR^ishhNa yajur veda. I remember Vidya posting a list of
> upanishhad-s long back on srh (?). Maybe it would be useful to
> cross-check. On a side note, a list of 108 upanishhad-s as given in the

I also have the brahma and garbha upanishads assigned to the kr.shNa
yajus. My information came from Sri V. Sadagopan, a Visishtadvaita scholar
who writes regularly on Tattvaloka, a journal published by the Sringeri
matha. If Deussen's understanding of Anandagiri is correct, there is some
discrepancy somewhere. Many of the upanishads listed in the muktikA are
texts without a living legacy, so it becomes difficult to classify all of
them.

> muktika and which veda each belongs to is available at
>         ftp://jaguar.cs.utah.edu/private/sanskrit/sanskrit.html
> (click on list of 108 upanishhad-s). If there are mistakes in this list,
> please let me know. Thanks.
>
> **
>

There is another table listing these 108 upanishads at
        <http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/advaita/upanishad.html>.
The table arranges these texts by veda affiliation and by subject matter.
I would also be grateful for corrections to this table.

> I have also read in some books that Shankara does not quote from Ramayana.
> But this is not correct, Shankara quotes from the Ramayana both in BSB
> and upadeshasahasri (and there is no doubt about the authencity of these

Is this quotation "rAmarAvaNoryuddham rAmarAvaNayoriva"? Are any other
verses of the Valmiki Ramayana quoted?

> works). Further Shankara quotes from Markandeya puraaNa in BSB and quotes
          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That is very interesting. I know that there is a Vishnu Purana quote in
the Bhagavad Gita Bhashya, but the Markandeya Purana quote is unknown to
me. Could you provide the details of this reference?

Vidyasankar