[Advaita-l] Number of Bhashyas written by Adi Shankara

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Dear Raghav Kumar Dwivedulaji,

It was in the early eighties, when I took up studies on the Mahabharata,
including the dating of the Mahabharata events, I found that the
Mahabharata did mention that the Bhagavad Gita contained 745 verses, which
included 620 verses spoken by Lord Krishna. But the commonly available
version (called the vulgate version) including the Jnaneshwari version,
written by Sant Jnaneshwar, contained only 700 verses, Even the
Shankarabhashya on the Bhagavadgita also contained 700 verses and Lord
Krishna spoke 575 verses only. However the Kashmiri version, brought to
public notice by an European scholar had 745verses and  another version
recovered from Varanasi had more than 745 verses. During the editing of the
Mahabharata by the group of Indian scholars, during the British-Raj, a
Maharashtrian professor, Dr. Belvalkar, who was professor in the Benares
Hindu unversity, removed the 45 verses from the Bhagavadgita in his edited
version of the Mahabharata, most likely because the Marathi version of
Jnaneshwari, wrillten about 700 yers ago, also had 700 verses. With
detailed research I found that the Bhagavad Gita indeed had 745 verses with
Lord Krishna speaking 620 verses, and interestingly Shri Gaupapadacharya,
the Param-guru of Adi Shankara took one very important verse from the
beginning of the second chapter of the Original Bhagavad Gita of 745 verses
and used it in his *Mandukya Karika (See *Mandukyakarika verse 2.6).* That
verse says that what does not exist in the beginning and at the end is
necessarily non-existent in the present,* *the objects are illusory and yet
they appear as if real.* Around that time I also read that Adi Shankara
wanted to write a bhashya on the Bhagavad Gita, but his paramguru advised
him to write a bhashya on the Lalita Trishati in stated of the
Bhagavadgita. After more than four decades, I don't recollect the source,
where Gaudapada told Adi Shankara to write the laita Trishatii bhashya on
priority, probably considering that Adi Sahankara did not have much time to
live. That made it clear that  as Gaudapadacharya already used the verse
from the Bhagavad Gita in his Mandukya karika, he thought the  bhashya on
the Bhagavad gita can wait and Adi Shankara should first write a Bhashya on
the Lalita trishati, an Agama text. Many scholars may get surprised to hear
that the Original Bhagavad Gita at the end clarifies that it has both he
Agama and the Nigama teachings.

Best wishes,
skb



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Raghav Kumar Dwivedula <raghavkumar00 at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Cc:
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Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2023 09:28:39 +0530
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Number of Bhashyas written by Adi Shankara
Namaste ji

> Adi Shankaracharya did not write the bhashya on
> the Bhagavad Gita, as Sri Gaudapadacharya told him not to write that. In
> fact, Gaudapadacharya asked Adi Shankaracharya to write a bhashya on the
> Lalita Trishati, instead of writing a bhashya on the Bhagavad Gita.



Since you have said this on many occasions, i presume you have a specific
reference from a text or digvijaya verse attesting to Sri Gaudapada
prohibiting Shankara from writing gItA bhAShya. It would be helpful if you
quoted it.  I myself lack the wherewithal to search all the possible
sanskrit texts and check if there is some such reference.

Om