[INDOLOGY] Question

Thu Sep 3 08:04:41 UTC 2020

Dear Deshpande Sir,

I am well aware of the problem that you mention. I have come across this
question so many times. Not only the *Anubhavāmṛta*, but also parts of
Jñāneśvara's commentary on the BG resonate with a certain non-dual
philosophical notion. But this parallel resonance of ideas and metaphors is
very commonly present in the intellectual history of Sanskrit systems at
large. But I do not have any good reason to create a narrative about why it
should be either influenced by or attached to "Kashmir Śaivism". Whatever
the latter term stands for, we have certainly witnessed it rather becoming
fashionable to attach all non-dual notions either to "Kashmir Śaivism" or
to Abhinavagupta and it also sounds esoterically pleasing to uninformed
quasi-modern sensibilities. In a sense, this is what Mādhavācārya (author
of the *Sarvadrśanasaṃgraha*) was doing, at one point in time, placing the
*svātantrya-advaita-vāda* or *pratyabhijñā-darśana* between the Vaiṣṇava
vedānta and Nyāya-vaiśeṣika. Even Madhusūdana Saraswati in his commentary
on the *Śivamahimnāstotra* places *svātantrya-advaita-vāda* somewhere
between Nyāya-vaiśeṣika and Sāṃkhya-yoga. According to them, there ought to
have been only one advaita, and that was Advaita-vedānta. This is what is
being rhetorically repeated now where all non-dualisms are seen as leading
towards "Kashmir Śaivism" and this is probably what the gentleman in the
Marathi discussion group is doing.

I would rather like to believe that Jñāneśvara's non-dualism was "his"
non-dualism influenced by (as you rightly pointed out) by the active Nātha
practicing cults etc. of that time in what is today's Maharashtra. After
all, the non-dual Krama ideas were not confined to Kashmir alone. Even
though I am not completely sure, but at a point in time I thought this
association of Jñāneśvara and Kashmir Śaivism was initiated by Dilip Citre
in his English translation of the *Anubhavāmṛta* (Sahitya Academi, 1996),
but the concocted narrative sounds even older. If you read Citre's
introduction, he says "I had begun to realize that the seed of
Anubhavamruta was to be found in Vasugupta/Kallata's Spandakarikas and
Shivasutras and/or to the tradition attributed to Gorakhanatha who in turn
could have been influenced by Kashmir Shaiva doctrines." (p. 7). He further
adds, "I believe that Anubhavamruta is, to a large extent, Jnanadeva's
'philosophical' response to the key texts of Kashmir Shaivism, in
particular, the Shivasutras and the Spandakarikas and the later
commentaries on these. In my view, therefore, the Kashmir Shaivagama texts
and commentaries are essential background reading to determine contextually
the significance of Anubhavamruta" (p. 7-8).

In this light, in the recent past, there have been many attempts of writing
or translating the “Kashmir Śaivism” works into Marathi. For instance, to
cite only one author, the Marathi translations of the *Tantravaṭadhānikā*
(1997), the *Śivasūtras* (2004), the *Tantrāloka* (Chapter first)
(2005), *Spanda
Śāstra* (2001), *Mahārthamañjarī* (2003), and many more texts by Keshav
Ramchandra Joshi who seems to seamlessly interpret and connect everything
with something called Siddha Yoga that in my understanding is the
20th-century construction that seeks legitimacy from some or many of these
archaic Sanskrit texts of Kashmiri origin.

I do not think Jñāneśvara, as original as he is in himself, should be
forcefully converted to some “Kashmir Shaivism”. And I would be happy if
some learned scholars of this list have an opinion on this.

Mrinal
------
*Mrinal Kaul*, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor - Manipal Centre for Humanities (MCH)
Coordinator - Centre for Religious Studies (CRS)
Dr TMA Pai Planetarium Complex
Alevoor Road, Manipal (Udupi) 576 104
Karnataka, INDIA
Tel +91-820-29-23567 Extn: 23567
https://mrinalkaul.academia.edu/
email: mrinal.kaul@ <mrinal.kaul at manipal.edu>stx.oxon.org

On Thu, 3 Sep 2020 at 07:09, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> Thanks, Mrinal, for this clarification.  This question came up because we
> have recently joined a Marathi discussion group, where we are reading the
> अमृतानुभव, a philosophical work of ज्ञानेश्वर, and the person who is
> leading the discussion is mixing up the Śāṅkara Advaita with Kashmiri
> Śaivism.  However, it seems to me that Jñāneśvara's own work, along with
> his more well known commentary on the Bhagavadgītā, the Jñāneśvarī alias
> Bhāvārthadīpikā, are syncretic works. Jñāneśvara's guru is his own elder
> brother Nivr̥ttinātha belonging to the Nātha tradition.  So it appears that
> a brand of Kashmir Śaivism percolated into Maharashtra through the Nātha
> tradition and it got syncretized with Śāṅkara Advaita and Bhakti
> traditions.  I am myself just at the beginning stages of sorting all this
> out, and I would appreciate any suggestions.  With best wishes,
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Wed, Sep 2, 2020 at 6:16 PM Mrinal Kaul <mrinalkaul81 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Dear Prof Deshpande,
>>
>> This is a problematic question. Śaṅkara is completely unknown to the
>> authors of non-dual Śaivism or even the dual Śiddhānta Śaivism. In fact
>> Utpala and Abhinava are using the 'advaita' of Bhartṛhari to encounter the
>> 'advaita' of Vijñānavāda Buddhists to establish their own 'advaita' point.
>> So Vedānta at large and particularly Śaṅkara is nowhere in the picture.
>> There is a very nice preface written by Prof Ambikadatta Sharma to the book
>> of Prof Navjivan Rastogi titled 'Abhinavagupta kā tantrāgamīya
>> dharma-darśana' (2013) where he philosophically engages with this question
>> mentioning why historically speaking Śaṅkara does not become important in
>> the case of Śaiva schools of Kashmir, both dual or non-dual.
>>
>> Having said that, there certainly are references here and there to
>> *śāntabrahmavādin*s, but mostly they are passing references. Vedāntins
>> have never been important for Śaivas. However, I do think there should be a
>> study that clearly reflects upon the two non-dual positions. I am saying
>> this because I have myself seen in my own teaching practice that how easy
>> is it to slip into the shoe of Śaṅkar's advaita when one is teaching
>> Abhinava, for instance. I am trying to work on something. Let us see if I
>> can finish it sooner than later.
>>
>> Best wishes.
>>
>> Mrinal
>> ------
>> *Mrinal Kaul*, Ph.D.
>> Assistant Professor - Manipal Centre for Humanities (MCH)
>> Coordinator - Centre for Religious Studies (CRS)
>> Dr TMA Pai Planetarium Complex
>> Alevoor Road, Manipal (Udupi) 576 104
>> Karnataka, INDIA
>> Tel +91-820-29-23567 Extn: 23567
>> https://mrinalkaul.academia.edu/
>> email: mrinal.kaul@ <mrinal.kaul at manipal.edu>stx.oxon.org
>>
>>
>> On Wed, 2 Sep 2020 at 22:07, Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Can someone give me textual references for the refutation of the
>>> Shankara Advaita in works on Kashmir Shaivism?  Thanks.
>>>
>>> Madhav M. Deshpande
>>> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
>>> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
>>> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
>>>
>>> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
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>>

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