Bodhayana

[Mani Varadarajan]

> Does anyone have any information if the Bodhayana bhashya on the
> Vishishtadvaita philosophy and quoted by Ramanujacharya still exists. I
> have tried to find it online but most of the sites say that it has been
> destroyed.

It does not exist. Some have doubted whether it even
existed in full in Ramanuja's time. The traditional
biographies make it clear that what Ramanuja procured
in Kashmir was an already tattered copy of the vRtti.
At the beginning of the SrIbhAshya, his commentary on
the vedAnta sUtras, Ramanuja writes that Bodhayana
wrote an extensive vRtti on the sUtras which succeeding
authors abridged. Based on these (collective) works,
Ramanuja writes, he wrote his own commentary on the
sUtras.

Ramanuja also quotes Bodhayana very sparingly, which
is surprising given the importance paid to Bodhayana in
the philsophical paramparA of the school.

This topic is discussed in detail by J.A.B. van Buitenen
in his edition of Ramanuja's Vedarthasangraha, as well
as by several traditional scholars.  One example of the
latter can be found in Chetlur V. Srivatsankachariar's
introduction to his edition of Venkatanatha's "Satadushani".

Mani