[Advaita-l] Chatusutri

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 19 Apr 2011, V Subrahmanian wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 1:03 PM, Ramakrishna Upadrasta <
> uramakrishna at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 2011/4/19 Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>:
>>> [Changing the topic to something more suitable.]
>>>
>>> On Mon, 18 Apr 2011, Venkata sriram P wrote:
>>>
>>>> It is also interesting to note that for Brahmasutra,
>>>> there is also a short treatise by Sankara called "chatusutri" which
>>>> is a short commentary on 4 Sutras of BS.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Chatusutri refers to the first four brahmasutras  and Shankaracharyas
>>> bhashya on them is referred to as adhyAsabhAShya.  It may be studied
>>
>> Isn't adhyAsabhAShya just the bhashhya of introducton to brahmasUtra-s?
>>
>> namaste
>> Ramakrishna
>>
>
> Yes. The  very name 'adhyAsabhAShya' is  of a later origin.  The
> 'introduction' by Shankara to His own BrahmasUtra bhAShya is called
> 'upodghAtaH' which name too Shankara has not given.  This portion starting
> with the sentence 'yuShmadasmat....' and ending with the sentence
> 'yathAchaayamarthaH....pradarshayiShyAmaH' is what is popularly termed '
> 'adhyAsabhAShya'.  The actual bhAShya for the first four sutra-s along with
> this 'adhyAsabhAShya' may be collectively called the 'chatussUtrI'.  In any
> case the study of the bhashya for the first four sutras is not without
> studying the upodghAtaH.

Thankyou for the clarification I stand corrected.

>  Commentators like for example the author of the
> RathnaprabhA have written elaborately on the adyAsabhAShya, especially the
> very opening sentences, and shown how the very first sUtra 'atha ataH
> brahmajijnAsA' itself lends to the incidence, sambhAvanA, of adhyAsa and
> thereby shown the 'adhyAsabhAShya's need and relevance to the first sUtra.

I was thinking of the influential panchapadika tika of Padmapadacharya 
which as it comes down to us now, only covers these parts of the 
brahmasutrabhashya.  (According to the digvijayas it was originally on the 
entire bhashya but most of it was burnt up by a jealous relative.)


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