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CHAPTER-III THE AUTHORSHIP PROBLEM OF Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana鈥�Discussions pertaining to the authorship problem of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana became alive in the field of Indian philosophy, soon after the discovery of the work. Owing to the perplexing colophon, the scholars differ among themselves when they addressed the authorship problem. The colophon The colophon of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana clearly states the author of the text as Sankara. It is stated therein that- "...in the vivarana of the patanjalayogasutrabhasya written by Sri Sankarabhagavat paramahamsa parivrajakacarya, who is the disciple of Sri Govindabhagavat pujyapada'.' This colophon is identically the same as those found in the acknowledged works of Sankaracarya. Some scholars agree with the authenticity of the colophon and ascribe this work to Shankaracharya- the great teacher of Advaita Vedanta and the commentator of prasthanatrayi. Some others put 98

forward counter arguments to refute the above view. Some of the main arguments and counter-arguments approving Sankaracarya as Vivaranakara are recounted below. Arguments that ascribe the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana to Sankaracarya Paul Hacker and his 'conversion thesis' According to Hacker, Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana is a genuine work of Sankaracarya. In 1968, Paul Hacker² presented his arguments to prove Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana as an early work by Sankaracarya. According to Hacker, Sankaracarya was a convert from Yoga to Advaita Vedanta. To support this view, he has produced a number of evidences from the works of Shankaracharya. To Hacker, these references indicate a thorough familiarity or the possibility of an early allegiance to the philosophy of Yoga.³ He also detected that, Vivaranakara had used a different commentary of Vyasa, which sometimes appeared to be superior to the bhasya used by Vacaspati. 4 In the translation of Leggett, it is mentioned that, Hacker pointed out in his original 99 99

article that the fact that the colophons identify the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana as Sankara Bhagavat, and not as Sankaracarya. 6 5 Hajime Nakamura and his observation on Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana's inclination to Advaita Hajime Nakamura from Japan has published a translation of the samadhipada of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana in Japanese in 36 successive issues of the Japanese Budhist journal 'Agama', from December 1979. According to him, Sankaracharya, the Advaitin is the author of the vivarana text. In the journal, he remarks that, it is not at all necessary to suppose that Sankara must have been a follower of the Yoga school at the time he wrote Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana According to Nakamura, Sankara could have written Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana as a Nakamura also points out that Advaitic views are Vedantin. strongly expressed in Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana The Sankarite style of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana analysed by Sengaku Mayeda Mayeda is another scholar from Japan with the opinion that Vivaranakara is none other than Sankaracarya. He has analysed a number of works attributed to Shankara and verified their authenticity. And he says that, it is very probable that Sankara is the Vivaranakara. Like Nakamura, Mayeda also thinks 100

G 38193 that, the vocabulary and usage of words are similar to those in authenticated commentaries of Shankaracharya. Mayeda refers to the view of Paul Hacker and observes that the 'conversion thesis' formulated by Hacker is not fully acceptable." * KERALA UNIVERSITY P. Ramasastri and S.R. Krishnamurthi Sastrin authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana ANANTHAPURAM * LIBRARY The editors of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana argue that, the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana is the same Sankarabhagavatpada- the author of Brahmasutrabhasya. They also give sufficient evidences to support this argument. The only real evidence in fact in support of this identification is the authority of the colophon at the end of each pada found in the manuscript. Furthermore, a comparison of the opening sentences of some other acknowledged commentaries of Shankara like that on the Chandogyopanisad and on the Apastamba dharmasutra with the opening sentence of the present work reveals a family resemblance and suggests the pen of a common author behind them. 8 The identical name vivarana used in all these commentaries, provides further strength to this suggestion. In numerous references to Yoga found in Brahmasutrabhasya, the 101

word yogasastra is uniformly employed, and the same word is found used in the present work also. The style of the present work and the manner of exposition also bear the characteristic stamp of Sankara's writings. Trevor Legget on the common style of Sankaracarya and the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Legget is the author of the English translation of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana entitled 'Sankara on the Yogasutras". In this text, he tries to give maximum evidences to approve the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana to Sankaracarya. The main evidence is that, samyagdarsana, a favourite word of Sankara which occurs more than 50 times in his Sankara-bhashya on Bhagavadgita, comes repeatedly in Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana also. Likewise, some technical terms such as adhyasa, etc. are frequently used in Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Kengo Harimoto and the study of different manuscripts of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Harimoto is a notable personality related with the study of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana In 1999, a dissertation entitled "A Critical Edition of The Patanjalayogasastravivarana, First Pada, Samadhipada with an Introduction" has been brought out by him 102

in the Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. Harimoto has prepared the new critical edition of the first chapter of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana considering more textual witnesses than those were used for the first edition." It is said that he has used the assistance of five manuscripts (including those not used in the initial publication) to critically edit the text. Harimoto also points out some demerits of T.S. Rukmani's translation" as well as the 1952 edition of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana 12 T. Vetter and other supporters of Shankara's authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana T. Vetter is also one of the scholars who ascribe the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana to Samkaracarya. He supports the view of Paul Hacker and characterizes Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana as a work of little 66 originality in his 'Studienzur Lehre und Entwicklung Sankaras."¹³ Apart from those noted above, there are a number of scholars who have shown their views regarding the authorship and contents of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Among them, the American scholar named Frits Staal supports Paul Hacker's 'conversion theory' and 14 narrates an imaginary story to support the view. After producing a number of evidences, Gregor Maehle states that, "From this we 103

can deduce that the author of vivarana- Sankara- lived prior to Vacaspati Misra who lived in the 9th century A.D."15 Albrecht Wezler: According to him, there was no absolute bar to the possible authorship of Sankaracarya. But still he considers it as merely a possibility. Wilhelm Halbfass, in an important 25-page appendix to the monograph 'Studies in Kumarila and Sankara' (No. 9 of studienzur Indologie und Iranistik, Reinbek, 1983) compares some of the philosophical ideas of the vivarana with parallels in Shankara's works and finds striking resemblances." Govind Chandra Pande on the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana G.C. Pande, who has studied the life and philosophy of Sankaracharya in detail, shares his view on the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana According to Pande, Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana is not written from an orthodox Sankhya-Yoga point of view. He states that it is an attempt to understand the philosophy of Yoga in conformity with Vedanta. G. C. Pande also points out some dissimilarities between Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana and Shankara's principal writings. It appears that he has a propensity to believe Paul Hackers argument- 'Sankara 104

the yogin'. And it is concluded that 'it is thus probable but not certain that the present work -vivarana is a genuine work of Sankara.' , 18 Ramakrishna Counter Arguments Kavi's and S.K. Ramanatha Sastri's disagreement on the authorship of Sankaracarya Ramakrishna Kavi is the first scholar who has discussed the authorship problem of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana He puts forward a doubt that the author 'bhagavatpada' may be the payyur bhagavatpada, the guru of Rsiputra Paramesvara. The second scholar S.K. Ramanatha Sastri also denied the authorship of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana of Sankara. Another important point mentioned by T.S. Rukmani is that S.K. Ramanatha Sastri states (in his edition of Gopalika commentary, p.xv) that at some point he read the following line in the original manuscript of the vivarana- "idam payyurbhagavatpadakrtam..." As he did not make a note of it at that time he was not able to state where it is in Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana 19 105

Anyhow, a similar reference is not there in the available published text of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana After an interval of twenty years of these arguments of Ramakrishna Kavi and Ramanatha Sastri, Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana has been published by the Madras University. Ram Shankar Bhattacharya on the common author of Jayamangala commentary and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana While discussing the variant readings of Yogasutra of Patanjali in his book- 'An Introduction to the Yogasutra', Bhattacharya notes some peculiarities with regard to the sutras used by Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana It is noted that, Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana has used the peculiar readings of some of the sutras that have not been referred to by other commentators. With this observation, it is surmised that Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana possibly represents a different recension of Yogasutra of Patanjali Bhattacharya calls it as the 'southern recension." It is also stated that the Kapilasuri-sanvada in the Santiparvan of Mahabharata (Kumbhakona ed.) indicates the existence of a southern school of Sankhya. It It is quite likely that a person belonging to this school might have composed the Jayamangalacommentary on the Sankhya-karika. He concludes that, most probably the authors of the two commentaries viz., Jayamangala, and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana are identical. 106

T.S. Rukmani's disagreement in ascribing the authorship to Sankaracarya Rukmani, who wrote an English translation of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana confidently states that, Vivaranakara is not the same Sankara- the author of Brahmasutrabhasya. To strengthen the view, she points out a number of evidences in the footnotes of her translation of the work. For example, T.S. Rukmani mentions that, it is difficult to imagine Sankara advocating dharma as an exclusive means to knowledge. 21 She points out that, Vivaranakara must have lived between the 12th and 15th centuries A.D. and have the name Sankara. A list of different Sankaras also is given and she concludes: any one of these Sankaras could have been the Vivaranakara. 22 In the introduction of the translation, T.S. Rukmani 23 gives evidences to an extant to reject the authorship of Sankaracarya, the author of Brahmasutrabhasya. Another useful thing she has made is the two appendices at the end of the text. The first one discusses the problem of the authorship of the Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana and the second one discusses Sankara's views on Yoga in the Brahmasutra Sankara-bhashya in the light of the authorship of the Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana 24 107

All of the above mentioned theories lack reliability owing to scarcity of concrete evidences and ambiguity of data. Following study is attempted to reconsider the authorship problem with the help of some additional data available. Sankaracarya and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Shankaracharya is one of the most celebrated philosophers India has produced. The relevance of his contribution exists even in this modern era. He is considered as the prominent expounder of Advaita Vedanta. It was he who defeated all other philosophers and stepped on the omniscient seat (sarvajnapitha). His date, works, life etc. have been subjects of controversy; it is not intended to discuss the same in detail in this study. There is a general outline of Sankaracarya's biography available in the Sankaravijayas. The date of Sankaracarya has been discussed for a long time. The most commonly accepted date of Sankaracarya is between A.D. 788 and 820. The legendary beliefs consider Samkaracarya as a junior contemporary of the great Mimamsa philosopher Kumarila Bhatta. After keen researches, G.C. Pande claims that Sankara would have to be placed between A.D. 650 108

and 700 and that would agree with the date accepted in the Srngeri tradition.² It should be borne in mind that, the concept of a historical biography of Samkaracarya (in the modern sense) did not exist in India. The only available ones are the Sankaravijayas, which are full of miracles and legends. So, one cannot rely completely on these exaggerated biographies. According to the legend, Samkaracarya is considered as an incarnation of the Lord Siva. There is no account given by Padmapada or Vacaspati 26 Misra to the effect that he was an incarnation. But it is wellknown that Sankaracarya was the grand disciple of Gaudapada and disciple of Govinda Bhagavatpada. The popular belief is that, Sankaracarya's birth place was in Kerala, (in southern India) in Kalati village. Kalati is situated on the northern bank of the river Curni (now known as Aluvappuzha). He was born in a brahmin family that respected the traditional values and Vedic rites. One Vidyadhiraja is said to have been the grandfather of Sankaracarya. Vidyadhiraja's son was a learned person named Sivaguru and he was the father of Samkaracarya. And his mother was named Arya or Aryamba. The 109

legends speak that the couple got a child as a favour of devotion to the lord Siva. After the death of his father, at the age of eight, Sankaracarya left his house to became a sannyasin and travelled all over India by foot in search of a master. He took the discipleship of Govinda Bhagavatpada and became well versed in all scriptures. Historians are of opinion that Sankaracarya had lived only up to 32 years. During that limited time, he obtained a number of disciples and composed a number of extra-ordinary works to his credit. He had defeated all the rival philosophers and made the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta as the most prominent one. Nearly 300 works are found ascribed to Sankaracarya. To determine the authenticity of the writings ascribed to Sankara is a complicated task because of innumerable ascriptions sometime without any base. 27 Besides original works, there are several commentaries ascribed to Sankara. Even the works of the mendicants of the Sankarite orders are ascribed to Sankaracarya. Govind Chandra Pande, in his work, gives an exclusive list of spurious commentaries ascribed to Sankara. The author further states that, most of these are mythical ascriptions. 110 28

Samkaracarya and Yoga The three commentaries ascribed to Sankara are related to Yoga viz., Rajayoga-bhasya on Mandalabrahmanopanisad, Vijrmbhita-yoga-sutra-bhasya, and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana 2 29 30 Another work is Yogataravali, which has already attributed to Govindapada by Citsukha or more usually to Sankara himself.³ Among these works, Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana acquired the attention of scholars since it published in 1952.31 Is Sankaracarya the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana? The main evidence for the authorship of Sankaracarya is the colophons at the end of each pada, which clearly show that Sankara, the disciple of Govinda bhagavatpada is the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana Anyhow, this is identically the same as those found in the acknowledged works of Samkaracarya. Another point is the use of the word vivarana to denote the commentary or sub-commentary. The same word can be seen in the famous commentaries of Samkaracarya viz., commentary on Chandogya, Bhagavadgita, etc. 32 Among the famous 'Keralite Sankaras,' the great advaitin Samkaracarya is the prominent. As stated in the colophon 111

of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana, one Govinda bhagavatpujyapada is the guru of the author of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana, and it is so in the famous works of Sankaracarya. In the words of the editors of Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana, the style of the present work, and the manner of exposition also bear the characteristic stamp of Shankara's writings.³ 33 Similarities between the works of Sankaracarya and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana The term 'vivarana' has been used in the Shankarabhashya of B.G by Samkaracarya in the sense of 34 commentary. The definition given to the word sraddha, is the clarity of mind with regard to the attainment of liberation and with regard to listening to the means to it. 35 It is like the clarity of water when it is in contact with the kataka fruit. It is to be considered that the example has been used by Sankaracarya in his 36 famous works. The use of kataka fruit for the purification of water is prevalent commonly in Kerala. While discussing prarabdhakarman, Vivaranakara emphasizes that one should complete by consume it. It is 37 compared with a released arrow. A similar reference can be seen in the Sankara-bhashya of Chandogyopanisad, in a similar context. 38 In one context, Sankara-bhashya describes heart as a house and Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana explains it as 112

it is like a house because of the connection with many hollow tubes. 39 If it is checked, one can see a similar reference in the commentary of Chandogyopanisad. 40 In the numerous references to Yoga found in the Brahmasutrabhasya, 41 as well as the acknowledged commentaries of Sankaracarya, one can find the word yogasastra being uniformly employed. The same word is found used in Patanjala-yogasutra-bhashya-vivarana also - yogasastravivaranamarabhyate.* It should also be noted that the practical aspects furnished by the philosophy of Yoga are accepted by most of the philosophers. So any philosopher has no problem in writing a sub-commentary of the basic text of that philosophy, as it helps to popularize and make it acceptable.