PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS OF SURESVARA AND BHARTRPRAPANCA BASED ON PHILOLOGICAL STUDIES OF SANSKRIT TEXTS AND MANUSCRIPTS

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Sankara, the founder of Advaita Vedanta, of the 8th century is said to be the greatest philosopher ever produced in India. This is because his monism of the limitless Brahman is the pan-Hindu thought. Later Vedanta teachers stood out due to their uniquenesses (and those of their new schools) in fining differences from Sankara, though Hindu sects of religion in general have developed introducing Bhakti and Tantrism. This research of the post-Sankara History of religion has made a remarkable development in the last three decades. But the study of Sankara or pre-Sankara Vedanta has been rather neglected. Since Prof.H.Nakamura's The Development of Vedanta Philosophy (1955), we have only two treatises giving a general outlook of pre-Sankara Vedanta, i.e. S.L.Pandey's Pre-Sankara Advaita Philosophy, (pp.209-228, 1974) and A.J.Alston's (trans) The Method of the Vedanta (pp.213-259, 1989). Now the Brhadaranyakopanisad is among the most important Upanisads, as is known from its involving Mahava … More kyas like aham brahmasmi, tat tvam asi, and therefore Sankara's Bhasya and Suresvara's Vartika of the same are also regarded as important works.Bhartrprapanca is an antagonist of Advaita Vedanta and is the author of the other Bhasya of the Brhadaranyakopanisad. In Suresvara's Vartika in particular, he is mostly referred as a rival discussant. (He was also a great figure in the pre-Sankara Vedanta history and is known as jnanakarmasamuccayavadin.) Because none of his writings are in our hands either in printed form or in manuscripts, it has been impossible to reconstruct his philosophical thoughts taking recourse to his own works. Collecting references found in the writings of others is the only possible way to procedd.This investigator planned to produce a complete translation of Suresvara's Vartika and to collect references. While translating the same the investigator noticed that Sastraprakasika, the commentrary on the Vartika by Anandagiri, referred to Bhartrprapanca's Bhasya, and found that there were many references to Bhartrprapanca's ideas thoughts in it. It is certain that Anandagiri had the same Bhasya to hand while he was writing Sastraprakasika. Therefore this investigator decided to search out a manuscript of the Bhasya.However, despite every possible effort, this investigator could not discover a manuscript. Also the reconstruction of the philosophical thought of Bhartrprapanca depending on scattered fragments was really a mammoth task, and is therefore still under way. Under the circumstances references to Bhartrprapanca found in Suresvara's Vartika are herewith presented in the report. Less