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Sankarācārya and the Taittiriyopanisad (with reference to his bhāsyas)
- Vijay Pandya The Taittiriyopanişad (T.U.) is one of those few Upanișads which have exercised a tremendous influence upon the course of Indian philosophy over the centuries. It is this Upanisad which has formed the core of the Brahmasūtra available at present along with some other classical Upanişads. Some of the sätras of the extant Brahmasūtra have been based upon this upanişad. The very second sutra HTER 76: 1 (1-1-2) has the passage from this Upanişad i.e. an a ghi भूतानि जायन्ते, येन जातानि जीवन्ति, यत्प्रयन्ति, अभिसंविशन्ति, तद्विजिज्ञासस्व, AGSEL for its visayavākya. The whole of the Anandamayādhikaraṇa (1-1-12to 19) has the ānandamimāmsā of this upanisad as the basis.
Then, there is one theory according to which there were various Brahmasūtras belonging to the various Upanişads, the Taittiriyopanişad likely being one of them.'
Śankarācārya was not to miss the enormous philosophic significance of this Upanisad, as is evidenced from the fact that he has quoted the T.U. in his Brahmasūtraśänkarabhāsya (B.S.S.B.)142 times. He has also written a commentary on the T.U.
Here, before we go deeper into the discussion, it should be made clear that, we assume both the bhāsyas viz. B.S.S.B. and the Taittiriuopanişadbhāsya to be authentic from the pen of Sarkarācārya, though occasionally the doubts have been raised about them. Scholars like Deussen think that the second interpretation of the Anandamayādhikaraṇa is an interpolation. Similarly the T. U. bhāsya is also authentic as Sureśvarācārya has commented upon it and there are sub-commentaries upon the Vārtika, a commentary by Sureśvarācārya on the T. U.
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