On Quadruple Division Of Yogasastra

Author(s): A Wezler
Publisher: A Wezler

Page 1

A. WEZLER
ON THE QUADRUPLE DIVISION OF THE YOGASASTRA, THE CATURVYOHATVA OF THE CIKITSASASTRA AND THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS OF THE BUDDHA
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(Studies in the Patañjalayogasastravivarana II)
1. The publication of the Patañjalayogasastravivarana - wrongly entitled Pätañjalayogasütrabhasyavivarana by the editors has, as the late Paul Hacker aptly remarked, raised a new problem in the study of the history of [Indian] philosophy. Hacker's attention was drawn to this text, though it is a commentary on the Yogasūtra (=YS) and Yogabhasya (=YBh/YBhasya), because it was regarded by the editors to be a work of Sankara, the Advaitin. For, Hacker has, as is well known, given much thought to the problem of how to distinguish. between the authentic works of Sankara, the Advaitin, and the many spuria ascribed to him, and he has evolved various criteria to prove authenticity. Therefore, it is by no means unexpected that he accepted the challenge posed by the publication of yet another text ascribed to the Advaitin. In his most stimulating article published in 1968 he does not, however, really want to prove the identity of the author of the
1. Ed. by Polakam Sri Rama Sastri and S. A. Krishnamurthi Sastri (= MGOS, no. XCIV), Madras, 1952. Most valuable observations on this text and on the authorship problem have been made by W. HALBFASS; cf. the appendix, Notes on the Yogasütrabhasyavivarana, in his recent monograph, Studies in Kumarila and Sankara, Reinbek, 1983, to which I should like to refer the reader also as regards the secondary literature sofar published on the Vivarana.
2. Cf. my article, Philological Observations on the so-called Pätañjalayogasūtrabhasyavivarana (Studies in the Pătañjalayogaśāstravivarana I), in IIJ, vol. 25 (1983). pp. 17-39.
3. Viz. on pp. 124-218 of his article, Sankara der Yogin und Sankara der Advaitin. Einige Beobachtungen, in Beiträge zur Geistesgeschichte Indiens. Festschrift für Erich Frauwallner, aus Anlass seines 70. Geburtstags herausgegeben von G. Oberhammer, Wien, 1968 (= WZKSO, 12-13, 1968-69), pp. 119-48 Kleine Schriften. Herausgegeben von L. Schmithausen (Glasenapp-Stiftung Bd. 15), Wiesbaden, 1978, pp. 213-42. In the following this article is referred to by (Hacker) 1968.
4. The German original runs as follows: ... der der Erforschung der Philosophiegeschichte ein neues Problem stellt...
5. Cf. In. 3.