Mr. Colebrooke on the P/iilosophi/ of the Hindus. S 



TVriters on the VedAnta. 

 - ' The S'drtraca mimdnsd or Brahme-sutra, above-mentioned, is a collection 

 of succinct aphorisms attributed to Badarayana, who is the same with 

 Vyasa or Veda-vydsa ; also called Dwaipdyana or Crishn'a-dwatpdyana. Ac- 

 cording to mythology, he had in a former state, being then a brdhmana 

 bearing the name of Apantara-tamas,* acquired a perfect knowledge of 

 revelation and of the divinity, and was consequently qualified for eternal 

 beatitude. Nevertheless, by special command of the deity, he resumed a 

 corporeal frame and the human shape, at the period intervening between 

 the third and fourth ages of the present world, and was compiler of the 

 vedas, as his title of Vydsa implies. 



In \hQPurdn'as, and by Paras'ara, he is said to be an incarnation (avatdra) 

 of Vishnu. This, however, is not altogether at variance with the foregoing 

 legend ; since Apantara-tamas, having attained perfection, was identified 

 with the deity ; and his resumption of the human form was a descent of the 

 god, in mythological notions. 



Apart from mythology, it is not to be deemed unlikely, that the person 

 (whoever he really was) who compiled and arranged the vedas, was led to 

 compose a treatise on their scope and essential doctrine. But Vyasa is also 

 reputed author of the Mahdbhdrata, and most of the principal purdn'as ; and 

 that is for the contrary reason improbable, since the doctrine of the purdn'as, 

 and even of the Bhagavad gitd and the rest of the Mahdbhdrata, are not 

 quite consonant to that of the vedas, as expounded in the Brahme sUtras. 

 The same person would not have deduced from the same premises such dif- 

 ferent conclusions. 



The name of Badarayana frequently recurs in the sutras ascribed to 

 him, as does that of Jaimini, the reputed author of the Purva mimdnsd, in 

 his. I have already remarked, in the preceding essay.t on the mention of an 

 author by his name, and in the third person, in his own work. It is nothing 

 unusual in literature or science of other nations : but a Hindu commentator 

 will account for it, by presuming the actual composition to be that of a dis- 

 ciple recording the words of his teacher. 



Besides Badarayana himself, and his great predecessor Jaimini, several 

 other distinguished names likewise occur, though less frequently : some 

 which are also noticed in the Purva-m'imdnsd, as Atreyi and Badari ; and 



• Sfanc. Sfc. on Br. Sutr. 3. 3. 32. f Vol. i. p. 4.40. 



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