No. 62.— 1909.] 



JNANA VASISHTAM. 



305 



This philosophy was at an early period systematized in 

 certain sutras or aphorisms 1 attributed to Badarayana alias 

 Vyasa, which have been copiously interpreted and expounded. 

 The best known exposition 2 is that of Sri Sankaracharya 

 Svami, the Hindu philosopher, who lived about the sixth 

 century of the Christian era. His writings and apostolic zeal 

 were mainly responsible for the downfall of Buddhism in India. 

 He founded the abbey of Sringeri (in Mysore), the abbot of 

 which is still the spiritual head of many millions of Hindus, 

 Sankaracharya's views are often erroneously identified, 

 especially by European scholars, with the Vedanta, as if there 

 were no other authoritative view. An earlier commentator 

 was Sri Nilakantha Svami, who is of great repute and authority 

 among the Saivas, or those who worship God under the name 

 of Siva. Nilakantha's work 3 is so little known outside the 

 circle of Saiva theologians that the learned Dr. Thibaut, who 

 has translated the Vydsa Sutras and Sankaracharya's com- 

 mentary for the Sacred Books of the East series of the Oxford 

 Clarendon Press, was not aware that in some of the points in 

 which Sankaracharya appeared to him to misunderstand the 

 original, Nilakantha took a different and truer view. Another 

 commentary 4 is that of Sri Ramanuja Svami, which enjoys 

 great authority among the Vaishnavas, or those who worship 

 God under the name of Vishnu. The three expositions 5 may 

 briefly, if roughly, be thus distinguished in regard to their 

 conception of the relations between God, soul, and matter. 

 Sankaracharya is a Monist, Nilakantha a pure Non-dualist 

 (Suddhadvaita), Ramanuja a qualified Non-dualist (Visishtad- 

 vaita). All take their stand on the Upanishads, while putting 



1 Known variously as the Vedanta Sutras, Vydsa Sutras, Brahma 

 Sutras, Uttaramimdmsa Sutras or Sdriraraka Mimdmsa Sutras. 



2 Called after him Sanhara Bhdshyam. 



3 Called after him Nilakantha or Srikantha bhdshyam. and also Saiva 

 bhdshyam or Suddhadvaita bhdshyam. 



4 Called after him Ramanuja bhdshyam. 



5 There are two other commentaries in current use, one by Madhava- 

 charya and another by Vallabhacharya. Two others, little known and 

 said to be older even than Nilakantha's, are attributed to Bodhayana 

 and Bhaskara. 



