COMMERCIAL EDS. + CRIT. EDS.

[vidya at cco.caltech.edu]

Prof. Witzel writes - 


> As far as I am aware, this kind of question is rarely raised even 

> among "professional" indologists (otherwise we would have  critical  
> editions of Sankara, all works of Kalidasa etc. etc.  by now! ). 

> Actually, I regard this neglect as nothing but scandalous. How can  
> one make valid statements on advaita if one does not even has come  
> *close* to the text Sankara may have written? (The same applies, a  
> fortiori, to Vedic editions made without using oral tradition. A 

> recitation of the Rgveda is, after all, a  *tape recording* of c. 

> 1000 B.C. and as such better than any MS).

I think Prof. Witzel has brought up important points, but on the  
issue of Sankara and advaita, I would like to make a few comments. 


I have only an amateur's knowledge of Sankara's works, but I am not  
aware that there is even a need for a "critical" text, in the first  
place. There may be doubt whether a given text, say VivekachUDAmaNi.  
is indeed Sankara's, but it is my impression that traditional advaita  
scholarship in India has preserved Sankara's undisputed works with  
remarkable fidelity. The same can be said even of the so-called  
prakaraNa granthas, of which his authorhsip is doubted by Western  
scholarship. The 1910 edition of Sankara's works, published by the  
Sringeri math, from Vani Vilas Press, Srirangam, is probably as good  
as a critical edition, barring possible typograhical errors.  
Interestingly, this edition does not include the bhAshyas on the  
SvetASvatara and the mANdUkya upanishads, that are attributed to  
Sankara. Are there disputes in the reading of, say Sankara's  
BrahmasUtra bhAshya, or his Br. up. bhAshya, which would create a  
need for a "critical" edition? Are there manuscripts from different  
regions of India that differ in details? 


I would also like to emphasize that it is not as if advaita is a  
relic of the past that can only be studied by reconstructing  
Sankara's works in a critical edition. It is a living tradition with  
numerous Sankara mathas functioning as centers of traditional advaita  
learning. In this case, isn't a text that is followed by authentic  
advaitin sannyasis more important for saying anything about advaita  
than anything that could be reconstructed in a critical edition?  


S. Vidyasankar
Chemical Engineering, California Institute of Technology