[Advaita-l] Advaita-l Digest, Vol 48, Issue 13

[Bhaskar YR]

[I reserve my opinion on the identity of Badarayana and Vyasa here]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

I heard that there are *difference* of opinions with regard to
identification of bArarAyaNa with vyAsa (veda vyAsa), Krishna
dvaipAyana...As far as I know, in sUtra commentary nowhere shankara
identifies sUtra kAra bAdarAyaNa with that of   itihAsa/purANakAra vyAsa.
Interestingly, while mentioning the authors of smruti texts, shankara
invariably says in sUtra bhAshya : vyAsAdi smruti kArA-s..nowhere there is
a mention of bAdarAyaNa while talking about the author of smruti
texts...For example in sUtra bhAshya 3-3-32 there is a mention of krishna
dvaipAyana vyAsa, but it is not clear there that shankara treats this vyAsa
as same as  sUtra kAra bAdarAyaNa...Somewhere else (I think in upadEsha
sAhasri) shankara tells us we have to determine vedAntArtha by keeping
*vyAsa mata*  in mind...But here too it is not clear shankara's *vyAsa
mata* is bAdarAyaNa's *sUtra mata*....Sri Vidyashankara prabhuji, sometime
(years) back had said that there were many vyAsa-s & the author of
bhAgavata might be a different one from krishnadvaipAyana vEda vyAsa.  From
this we can infer that bAdarAyaNa may also be called one of  vyAsa-s.
Though conclusions from these type of academics donot have any direct
impact on our vedAntic understanding, I'd like to know more about it if
possible.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar