[INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed

Fri Aug 22 06:55:19 UTC 2025

[Attached is an article on the issue of Bhāskara's provenance:
Kato, Takahiro, A Note on the Kashmirian Recension of the Bhagavadgītā, in:
Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, 62.3, 2014, pp. 1144-1150. ]

All the best,
WS

Am Fr., 22. Aug. 2025 um 07:27 Uhr schrieb Walter Slaje <
walter.slaje at gmail.com>:

> Dear Alex and John,
>
> >  Food for thought
>
> You said it!
>
>
> On the other hand, it is undoubtedly true that even if Śaṅkara's teachings
> were known to a few authors in Kashmir at that time, he cannot have played
> a significant role, since one has to search for him with a magnifying glass
> in authentic Kashmiri texts, as can be seen from the two important papers
> sent by John and Alex. Otherwise, the question of Śaṅkara's intellectual
> presence in Kashmir would not have arisen. Therefore, Śaṅkara was either
> barely known or more or less ignored.
>
>
> However, if we assume that Bhāskara (the author of the Śārīrakamīmāṃsā-
> and Bhagavadgītābhāṣyas) actually came from Kashmir — for what other reason
> would he have known and quoted the Bhagavadgītā almost exclusively in its
> Kashmiri recension? — then this would suggest at least one detailed
> critical engagement with Śaṅkara in Kashmir. (On a less serious note, was
> he unable to recover from Bhāskara's final blow in Kashmir?)
>
> More food for thought?
>
> Yours,
> Walter
>
> Am Fr., 22. Aug. 2025 um 00:39 Uhr schrieb Alex Watson <
> alex.watson at ashoka.edu.in>:
>
>> Dear All
>>
>> 1. I have written something about the kind of Vedānta known to
>> Sadyojyotis (675–725 CE) and Rāmakaṇṭha (950–1000 CE): see pp. 23–27 of the
>> attachment.
>>
>> 2. The footnote by Sanderson on this topic, cited many times since he
>> wrote it in the first half of the 1980s (e.g. in the article by Andrea Acri
>> shared by John Nemec) reads:
>> “When Vedānta is expounded by its opponents in Kashmirian sources of our
>> period it is the doctrine of Maṇḍanamiśra which is generally in mind [...].
>> To my knowledge no source betrays familiarity with the doctrines of
>> Śaṅkara.”
>> To support the contention that Kashmirian sources draw on Maṇḍanamiśra
>> rather than Śaṅkara to compose their Vedānta-pūrvapakṣas, he lists passages
>> in the Paramokṣanirāsakārikā, the Nyāyamañjarī and the Tantrālokaviveka.
>> The inclusion there of Jayaratha's Tantrālokaviveka implies that at the
>> time of writing the footnote he had found no trace of Śaṅkara in that
>> text.  But if my memory serves me correctly, he did subsequently find it in
>> that text of Jayaratha.  That would date the earliest definite knowledge of
>> Śaṅkara in Kashmir to the beginning of the 13th century.
>>
>> 3.  Elliot Stern once sent me the following possible piece of evidence
>> for familiarity with Śaṅkara in Jayanta's Nyāyamañjarī (c. 890 CE):
>>
>> Nyāyamañjarī (Mysore ed. p. 466.2-3):
>> nanu yady ekam eva brahma na dvitīyaṃ kiñcid asti, tarhi tad brahma
>> nityaśuddhabuddhasvabhāvatvāt muktam evāste.
>>
>> Śaṅkara’s Brahmasūtrabhāṣyam (NSP 1938 edition, 2.3.40: p. 616.7):
>> api ca nityaśuddhabuddhamuktātmapratipādanān mokṣasiddhir abhimatā.
>>
>> (1.1.4: p. 113.1): nityaśuddhabuddhamuktasvabhāvaḥ
>>
>> Śaṅkara uses nityaśuddhabuddhamukta and similar expressions several times
>> in this work.  Nothing like it appears in Brahmasiddhiḥ or Gaudapāda’s
>> kārikāḥ.
>>
>> This is of course not conclusive, for Jayanta could be drawing on a third
>> source.
>>
>> Yours,
>> Alex
>> --
>> Alex Watson
>> Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Indian Philosophy
>> Professor of Indian Philosophy, Ashoka University
>> *https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson
>> <https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson>*
>>
>> On Thu, Aug 21, 2025 at 7:20 PM Nemec, John William (jwn3y) via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Harry, Walter, and All,
>>>
>>> Andrea Acri has written about this, and I have downloaded the relevant
>>> article from his academia.edu page and attach it here.
>>>
>>> See p. 578 environ, and Andrea may be right that I (and several others)
>>> might be wrong about whether Śaṅkara was known in the Valley around this
>>> time.
>>>
>>> Food for thought.
>>>
>>> As Ever,
>>> John
>>>
>>> ___________________________________________
>>> John Nemec, Ph.D.
>>> Professor of Indian Religions and South Asian Studies
>>> Department of Religious Studies
>>> 323 Gibson Hall, 1540 Jefferson Park Avenue
>>> University of Virginia
>>> Charlottesville, VA 22904
>>> +1 (434) 924-6716
>>> nemec at virginia.edu
>>> https://virginia.academia.edu/JNemec
>>>
>>> Take a look at my new book:
>>>
>>> https://global.oup.com/academic/product/brahmins-and-kings-9780197791998?cc=us&lang=en&
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
>>> Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, August 21, 2025 1:12 PM
>>> *To:* Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
>>> *Cc:* Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed
>>>
>>> Dear Harry,
>>>
>>> >  Was the existence of  Śaṅkarācārya and/or his writings known in 10th
>>> century Kashmir?
>>> To my knowledge, Śaṅkara played no role in Kashmir at that time.
>>> Maṇḍanamiśra was seen as the representative of Advaita Vedānta.
>>> Significantly, the Mokṣopāya addresses and quotes Maṇḍana's theory of error
>>> (*khyāti *[Vibhramaviveka]) in Mokṣopāya VI.325.1–10 (the current
>>> volume), adopting "Vasiṣṭha's" inclusivistic approach by redefining the *ātmakhyāti
>>> *of the Yogācāra school in his own terms. As so often, he tells a
>>> parable to illustrate his point  (*śilopākhyāna*, VI.32511–40).
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Walter
>>>
>>>
>>> Am Do., 21. Aug. 2025 um 15:59 Uhr schrieb Harry Spier <
>>> vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>:
>>>
>>> Dear Walter,
>>>
>>> My congratulations also on this impressive accomplishment.
>>>
>>> You wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>> Contrary to a still-prevailing misconception, the 10th-century
>>> *Mokṣopāya* from Kashmir has nothing at all to do with Śaṅkara's
>>> Advaitavedānta  . . .
>>>
>>>
>>> Was the existence of  Śaṅkarācārya and/or his writings known in 10th
>>> century Kashmir?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Harry Spier
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> INDOLOGY mailing list
>>> INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
>>> https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> * <https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson>*
>>
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