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Re: Question re: Gaudapada Karikas.

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Vidyasankar Sundaresan • September 17, 1996 


On Tue, 17 Sep 1996, Mani Varadarajan wrote:

> I researched a little more on the Karika quotation.
> Abhinava Ranganatha Parakala Mahadesikan wrote a commentary
> called "gUDhArthasangraha" on the jijnAsAadhikaraNa of the
> Sribhashya.  Without any hesitation, he says that Ramanuja's
> quotation in the Advaitic pUrvapaksha is from the Gaudapada
> Karika (i.16, I believe -- speaking about the self waking up
> from deep slumber).

This raises one question. Given that GK I.16 is quoted in the advaitic
pUrvapaksha, is Ramanuja quoting GK I.16 as Sruti, or is he saying that
the advaitin quotes GK I.16 as Sruti? It all depends on how the whole
sentence is structured, I suppose. If the former, that raises the
question whether the word "SrUyate" means that he takes GK (at least part
of it) to be Sruti. If the latter, that could mean he is using the word
"SrUyate" in a less technical sense. It may say nothing about whether he
considers GK to be Sruti or not. In fact, the non-quotation of GK anywhere
else could mean that he does not think it to be Sruti. 

Are you still on the Indology list? If so, you might like to post a note
to it in this regard. Howard Resnick from Harvard (Hrid@aol.com) asked
this question originally on Indology, to which I responded briefly. I
believe the question came up while you were away in India.  


Vidya