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cxxvi
VEDÂNTA-SOTRAS.
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We have above been obliged to leave it an open question what kind of Vedanta is represented by the Vedanta-sútras, although reason was shown for the supposition that in some important points their teaching is more closely related to the system of Ramânuga than to that of Sankara. If so, the philosophy of Sankara would on the whole stand nearer to the teaching of the Upanishads than the Sûtras of Bâdarâyana. This would indeed be a somewhat unexpected conclusion-for, judging à priori, we should be more inclined to assume a direct propagation of the true doctrine of the Upanishads through Bâdarayana to Sankara—but à priori considerations have of course no weight against positive evidence to the contrary. There are, moreover, other facts in the history of Indian philosophy and theology which help us better to appreciate the possibility of Bådarâyana's Sûtras already setting forth a doctrine that lays greater stress on the personal character of the highest being than is in agreement with the prevailing tendency of the Upanishads. That the pure doctrine of those ancient Brahminical treatises underwent at a rather early period amalgamations with beliefs which most probably had sprung up in altogether different-priestly or non-priestly-communities is a well-known circumstance; it suffices for our purposes to refer to the most eminent of the early literary monuments in which an amalgamation of the kind mentioned is observable, viz. the Bhagavadgitâ.
The doctrine of the Bhagavadgitâ represents a fusion of the Brahman theory of the Upanishads with the belief in a personal highest being—Krishna or Vishnu—which in many respects approximates very closely to the system of the Bhagavatas; the attempts of a certain set of Indian commentators to explain it as setting forth pure Vedanta, i.e. the pure doctrine of the Upanishads, may simply be set aside. But this same Bhagavadgita is quoted in Bådarayana's Sûtras (at least according to the unanimous explanations of the most eminent scholiasts of different schools) as inferior to Sruti only in authority. The Satras, is touched upon will I hope form part of the second volume of the translation. The same remark applies to a point concerning which further inforination had been promised above on page v.
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