[Advaita-l] About Yajnavalkya of BAU

[Shrisha Rao]

On Mon, 19 Jul 2004, Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

> On Fri, 16 Jul 2004, Yann Le Boucher wrote:

> > - Who was his own guru?
>
> Vaishampayana the shishya of Veda Vyasa.  But after quarrelling with his

That is not likely, because he could not be the teacher of Janaka (who, by
tradition, lived in the Treta Yuga, and figures in the Ramayana), and be
the pupil of Vaishampayana (who, by tradition, lived in the Dvapara, and
figures in the Mahabharata).  Even if one assumes for him a very long life
spanning entire Yugas, one still would have to grant that he would be a
pupil first and a teacher second.

> > - Apart from Janaka and Maitreyi, did he had others known disciples?
>
> Yes, the entire lineage of the shuklayajurveda descends from him.  This is
> described in the vamshabrahmana.

The Vamsha Brahmana and such sources need to be interpreted with some
care.  You are aware that names repeat, and sometimes they don't refer to
whom one might casually suppose they do.

> > - Is the Uddalaka Aruni defeated in the Brihad Aranyaka Up by Yajnavalkya
> > the same person than the Uddalaka Aruni of the Chandogya Up ?
>
> By tradition, yes.

Again, I am not aware that *tradition* (any) has explicitly identified the
two as one and the same.  (Not to say they're not, but just that there is
no explicit tradition to the effect that they are.)  Names like
Yajnavalkya, Uddalaka, Ajatashatru, Gautama, etc., occur repeatedly and
sometimes with conflicting details or narrations.  The explanation given
is that these refer to different individuals with the same name (in
different cycles of Creation).

Regards,

Shrisha Rao

> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>