Advaita-Chandran

[Elliot Stern]

n Thursday, 4 March, Shrisha Rao

>On Tue, 2 Mar 1999, nanda chandran wrote:
>
>> Even this statement is subjective, as ultimately all statements are :-)
>
>Don't you think that is just a variation of the liar's paradox?
>
>> It was with Shankara that a full fledged logically consistent view of
>> AtmavAda developed, which itself played a significant part in the
>> disappearance of Buddhism in BhArath.
>
>I don't think you understand; Dr. Hebbar's point was that Buddhism had
>*already disappeared* by the time of Shankara's advent (or coming of age),
>and that thus he had nothing to do with the same.  This of course is not
>connected to whether his view was logically consistent or otherwise; the
>matter is decidable merely based on historical research, and more than one
>scholar has concluded on the basis of such that Buddhism was either
>completely gone, or otherwise on its last legs and destined to lapse, by
>the time Shankara came around.  If you disagree, then the proper thing to
>do would be to do a deconstructive analysis of the historical research
>which has gone into providing this conclusion, and to suggest or prove a
>different one.  Merely asserting the beauty or otherwise of Shankara's
>system does not provide a satisfactory answer.

I have not been following this thread very closely, but cannot let this
portion slip by without comment. One of zaGkara's commentators,
vAcaspatimizraH, who lived some considerable time after  zaGkaraH, also
wrote various other works, including a commentary nyAyakaNikA on
maNDanamizra's vidhivivekaH, and nyAyavArttikatAtparyaTIkA. The 11th
century Indian Buddhist writers jJAnazrImitraH and his student ratnakIrtiH
name vAcaspatimizraH, these two works, and present sometimes extensive
extracts from these works, which they then refute from a Buddhist point of
view. Their works evidence the persistence of a vigorous intellectual
tradition within Indian Buddhism even centuries after zaGkaraH, that
suggests that Buddhism had neither disappeared at or before zaGkara's time,
nor was it then on its last legs in India.

Elliot M. Stern


Elliot M. Stern
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