[Advaita-l] Question on Bodhayana and Upavarsha Vruttis of Brahma Sutras

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Pranams Sunilji,
> 
> I believe Bhartrihari exclusively uses the sphota vaada which Acharya
> refuses. Instead our Acharya follows Varna vaada of Upavarsha who
> himself firmly rejects Sphota vaada although Upavarsha's period comes

That is right.
 
> much before that of Bhartrihari. I fail to understand why Bhartrihari,
> the son of the Guru of our Acharya would be a profound writer in a
> vaada which his father's prime disciple completely rejects?

The answer is that bhartRhari was almost certainly NOT a son of
govinda bhagavatpAda. The guru of Sankara, govinda bhagavatpAda,
was also, almost certainly, NOT the father of the king vikramAditya
and he was, again almost certainly, NOT married to four wives, one
from each varNa. He was also, almost certainly, NOT the father of
bhaTTi and vararuci.

For that matter, bhartRhari, vikramAditya, vararuci and bhaTTi were,
almost certainly, NOT half-brothers. They belonged to very different
periods in history. With all due respect to those who quote patanjali
carita, a poem from the 17th century, mere repetition of a fanciful
legend that makes no historical sense is not going to make it so!

Best regards,
Vidyasankar