Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracharya, Part I (Brahma Sutra Bhashya)
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- George Thibaut
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Some scanning errors (automatic measure over the whole text, not checked by hand) · 1 illegible passage, excluded from answers
- Extent:
- ~480,000 words · 2,263 passages
Cite this work
- APAAdi Shankara. (n.d.). Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracharya, Part I (Brahma Sutra Bhashya) (George Thibaut, Trans.). Digital reproduction: SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/adi-shankara/vedanta-sutras-with-the-commentary-by-sankaracharya-part-i-brahma-sutra-bhashya
- MLAAdi Shankara. Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracharya, Part I (Brahma Sutra Bhashya). Translated by George Thibaut. Digital reproduction, SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/adi-shankara/vedanta-sutras-with-the-commentary-by-sankaracharya-part-i-brahma-sutra-bhashya.
- ChicagoAdi Shankara. Vedanta-Sutras with the Commentary by Sankaracharya, Part I (Brahma Sutra Bhashya). Translated by George Thibaut. Digital reproduction, SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/adi-shankara/vedanta-sutras-with-the-commentary-by-sankaracharya-part-i-brahma-sutra-bhashya.
Reference to the edition that SigPhi reproduces: SigPhi is its digital reproduction, not its publisher. The edition's year is not in the metadata (hence "n.d."), and the translator appears only when recorded.
What it is about
Shankara's commentary on the Brahma Sutras, the founding text of Advaita Vedanta: the claim that Brahman and atman — the ground of the world and the self — are not two.
Context and history
The Brahma Sutras are aphorisms so terse that they cannot be read on their own; that is why the commentary is what counts, and why rival ones exist: Ramanuja and Madhva comment on the same sutras and draw doctrines quite unlike Shankara's. Reading this text means reading one of the three possible readings, not a neutral text, and it is worth knowing that before starting.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
method are excluded ; while there was no similar reason for the separation of the two topics in the case of the purely theoretical science of Brahman. And, in the second place, the Vedanta-sutras throughout presuppose the Purva Mima^sa-shtras, and may therefore dispense with the discussion of general principles and methods already esta¬ blished in the latter. The time at which the two Mima^sa-sutras were com¬ posed we are at present unable to fix with any certainty; a few remarks on the subject will, however, be made later on. Their outward form is that common to all the socalled Sutras which aims at condensing a given body of doctrine in a number of concise aphoristic sentences, and often even mere detached words in lieu of sentences.