Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/445

 x] Vedanta and Sll1ikara 4 2 9 I t is so obvious that these doctrines are borrowed from the Madhyamika doctrines, as found in the N agarjuna's karikas and the Vijfianavada doctrines, as found in Laizkavatara, that it is needless to attempt to prove it. Gauc;1apada assimilated all the Buddhist Sunyavada and Vijfianavada teachings, and thought that these held good of the ultimate truth preached by the U paniads. It is immaterial whether he was a Hindu or a Buddhist, so long as we are sure that he had the highest respect for the Buddha and for the teachings which he believed to be his. Gauc;1apada took the smallest Upaniads to comment upon, probably because he wished to give his opinions unrestricted by the textual limita- tions of the bigger ones. His main emphasis is on the truth that he realized to be perfect. He only incidentally suggested th.at the great Buddhist truth of indefinable and unspeakable vijfiana or vacuity would hold good of the highest atman of the Upaniads, and thus laid the foundation of a revival of the Upaniad studies on Buddhist lines. How far the Upaniads guaranteed in detail the truth of Gauc;1apada's views it was left for his disciple, the great Satikara, to examine and explain. Vedanta and Sankara (788-820 A.D.). Vedanta philosophy is the philosophy which claims to be the exposition of the philosophy taught in the U pani!:,ads and summarized in the Brallma-sittras of BadarayaI)a. The Upaniads form the last part of the Veda literature, and its philosophy is therefore also called sometimes the Uttara-Mlmarpsa or the Mlmarpsa (decision) of the later part of the Vedas as distinguished from the Mlmarpsa of the previous part of the Vedas and the BrahmaI)as as incorporated in the Pitr",'amlmal!ISa siUras of J aimini. Though these Bral111la-sfetras were differently interpreted by different exponents, the views expressed in the earliest com- mentaryon them now available, written by SaIikaracarya, have attained wonderful celebrity, both on account of the subtle and deep ideas it contains, and also on account of the association of the illustrious personality of SaIikara. So great is the influence of the philosophy propounded by SaIikara and elaborated by his illus- trious followers, that whenever we speak of the Vedanta philosophy we mean the philosophy that was propounded by SaIikara. If other expositions are intended the names of the exponents have to be mentioned (e.g. Ramanuja-mata, Vallabha-mata, etc.). In this