The GK, mANDUkya controversy and some other stuff

[Giri]

On Fri, 14 Mar 1997, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:

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

        I think Duessen is mistaken as he repeatedly remarks that Shankara
does not quote from atharva upanishhads. For example, he says Shankara
does not quote from Mandukya, Maitri nor any of the AtharvaNa upanishhad
(page 32 in his book 'The system of vedanta'). He repeats this contention
in other places also. I, naturally, assumed that he meant _minor_
upanishhad-s, though Deussen does not say that. Deussen, in the earlier
portion of the book remarks that Atharva veda was written down much later
than the three other vedas and still struggles to gain "recognition."
I did not want to think that Deussen may not know prashna and mundaka
upanishhad were from the atharva veda.

> I also have the brahma and garbha upanishads assigned to the kr.shNa
> yajus. My information came from Sri V. Sadagopan, a Visishtadvaita scholar

Thanks for checking.

> >         ftp://jaguar.cs.utah.edu/private/sanskrit/sanskrit.html
> > (click on list of 108 upanishhad-s). If there are mistakes in this list,
>
> 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.

        Since I have also made the table in the jaguar site with veda
affliation and subject matter, I will cross check the table with the above
table this weekend. The table in jaguar site follows the order of
upanishhad-s as given in the muktika (which may not be a good way).

        I took some of the information from a book titled '112 upanisads'
and I cross-checked a few of them (I have around 45 of them in sanskrit)
with the beginning of saanthi.

> > 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?

        In the BSB, Ramayana is quoted only once. According to Deussen
('system of vedanta) it is 1036,5 i.e page number 1036 of Shankara's
brahma suutra bhashya published by Bibl. Ind.  (which contains 1155
pages). Cross-referencing this number with the suutra bhashya, it should
be near the end of BS III:4. The verse quoted is ramayana 1.1.1, according
to Deussen. I have read somewhere else that it is in BS III:4:47-50.

 >
> > 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

        Sure. Markandeya Purana is quoted in 208, 15 and 872,8 of
Shankara's BSB. This corresponds to near the end of BS I:3 (should be near
BS I:2.21-23) and near the start of BS III:3. The reference for both the
quotes in Markandeya purana is 45,64.

        Deussen also notes atleast three different quotes from other
puraNaa-s but fails to mention which those are. Vishnu Purana and Shiva
purana are quoted in the vishnu sahasranama bhashya. I think he quotes
Shiva purana to explain the world rudra. Kartik also told me something
about this. Shankara quotes from the brahmananda purana in the lalita
trishati bhashya. Well, lalita trishati itself is in that purana.

        Please note that some of these numbers are from memory. I will
correct them, if there are some errors, after I go home and check the
book(s). I had prepared the above list to send to Rama in a private e-mail
but now I don't need to :-)

Namaste.