[Advaita-l] Gudharthadipika of Madhusudana Sarasvati

saha niranjan sahaniranjan at yahoo.co.in
Sat Aug 18 02:35:24 CDT 2012



Dear Scholars,

Namaskaram! Could any one get me clarified the following.

In the introductory verseĀ  4 of the Gudharthadipika, Madhusudana has
termed the Vedas tripartite having karma, upasana, and jnana kandas
respectively and mentioned the Gita too as having three kandas in 18 chapters
accordingly. It is said that Sayanacarya in his Vedabhasya has also divided the
Vedas into three parts , though the division into karma and jnana kands may
seem to be explicit and bhakti or upasana kanda may be the corollary of the
jnana kanda there. And it has been a tradition to consider the Vedas as having
three parts even before the advent of Sankara. 

Yamuna, Ramanuja, Keshavakashmiribhatta (1510 CE. Like Sankara, he describes
the Gita as the essence of the entire Vedic lore), Nilakantha (16th century CE)
etc. too have divided the Gita into three parts, though none of them have
mentioned that the tripartite Gita coressponds to the tripartite Vedas.



So, can it be said that Madhusudana has borrowed the idea of tripartite Vedas
from the tradition or from Sayana in order to make the Gita tripartite? or, it
is Madhusudana's noble approach to the Gita?



With kind regards,

Sincerely yours,

Niranjan Saha




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