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

[V Subrahmanian]

Namaste

There is a way to determine that it was the same Shankaracharya who penned
the prasthana traya bhashyas. The use of the term 'Sampradayavit' ('a
knower of the Advaita Vedanta tradition') appears to be unique to
Shankaracharya alone and none of the other Acharyas who have been included
in the Advaita Sarada resource. Shankara uses this term twice with a slight
variation in the Brahma Sutra bhashya to refer to to verses of Goudapad
Acharya. And once he has used this very term toapparently cite Gowdapada
Acharya in the  Bhagavad Gita Bhashya for the 13th chapter. The maxim that
he cites there could be traced to Goudapadacharya's Uttara Geeta bhashya.
However even there it cannot be conclusively said that it is an utterance
of Goudapadacharya; he might have himself cited it from an earlier Advaitic
source.

Maybe one can do a short research by taking up some unique usages of
Shankaracharya which one might find commonly across the prasthana traya
bhashyas. If such a thing can be done in a conclusive way then we can
establish that the same Shankaracharya has authored the prasthana traya
Corpus.

Here are the stated usages:

BSB 1.4.14:


तथा च सम्प्रदायविदो वदन्ति — ‘मृल्लोहविस्फुलिङ्गाद्यैः सृष्टिर्या
चोदितान्यथा । उपायः सोऽवताराय नास्ति भेदः कथञ्चन’ (मा. का. ३ । १५)
<https://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Mandukya?page=3&id=MK_C03_K15&hl=%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B2%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%B9%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AB%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B2%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%99%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%97%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%83%E0%A4%B7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9F%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%20%E0%A4%9A%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%BE%C2%A0%E0%A5%A4%20%E0%A4%89%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8B%E0%A4%BD%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%20%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%20%E0%A4%AD%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%A5%E0%A4%9E%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%A8>
 इति ।

BSB. 2.1.9:

अत्रोक्तं वेदान्तार्थसम्प्रदायविद्भिराचार्यैः — ‘ अनादिमायया सुप्तो यदा
जीवः प्रबुध्यते । अजमनिद्रमस्वप्नमद्वैतं बुध्यते तदा’ (मा. का. १ । १६)
<https://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Mandukya?page=1&id=MK_C01_K16&hl=%20%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8B%20%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%20%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%87%C2%A0%E0%A5%A4%20%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%88%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%20%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A7%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%87%20%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE>
 इति ।

Gita bhashya 13.13:

तथा हि सम्प्रदायविदां वचनम् — ‘अध्यारोपापवादाभ्यां निष्प्रपञ्चं
प्रपञ्च्यते’ ( ? ) इति ।

warm regards
subbu



On Tue, 28 Mar 2023, 11:08 pm sunil bhattacharjya via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear Kaushikji,
>
> Please don't make vague accusation. If I am wrong and you know what is what
> correctly, please don't hesitate to give the details. Please do tell us
> where did Adi Shankara mention about the prashthanabeda? If you know the
> date of Adi Shankara, who was born on the 14th year of reign of
> Vikramaditya, who was the author of "Khandana-khanda-khadya", please do
> write that in detail.
>
> Sincerely,
> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
>
> On Mon, Mar 27, 2023 at 11:52 PM Kaushik Chevendra <
> chevendrakaushik at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > namaste sir.
> > This appears to be more of a speculation and opinion rather than a
> > concrete evidence. Starting from scholars to traditional scholars no one
> > doubts the gita bhasya as an authentic texts. Infact the prasthanitraya
> are
> > the first works which are studied by all the advaita students.
> >
> >
> > On Mon, 27 Mar, 2023, 11:07 pm sunil bhattacharjya via Advaita-l, <
> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >> 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:
> >> Bcc:
> >> 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
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