[INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed

Fri Aug 22 21:54:05 UTC 2025

Dear All

One possible explanation of the sentence I cited earlier from the
Nyāyamañjarī (Mysore ed. p. 466.2-3):
*nanu yady ekam eva brahma na dvitīyaṃ kiñcid asti, tarhi tad brahma
nityaśuddhabuddhasvabhāvatvāt muktam evāste.*

is that it is based on what Bhāskara says in a pūrvapakṣa
(Brahmasūtrabhaṣyam 2.3.48: 236.8-9):
*paramātmanā ced abhinno jīvah, kasyānujñāparihārau syātām. na hi
paramātmano 'dhikāro 'sti, nityaśuddhabuddhamuktarūpatvāt. *

which was in turn based on Śaṅkara.  Again, thanks to Elliot Stern for this
point.

I don't know if there is any other evidence that Jayanta read Bhāskara.

Yours
Alex

On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 6:28 PM Uskokov, Aleksandar via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Thank you, Matthew.
>
> Apropos your observation that you haven't encountered any classical
> Buddhist reference to Śaṅkara, and since we seem to be all sharing Bhāskara
> papers today, I attach Hajime Nakamura's "Bhāskara, the Vedāntin, in
> Buddhist Literature," who notes that Bhāskara seems to have been the
> representative Vedāntin for Buddhists. It would seem that for a good while
> Śaṅkara is deeply buried in the South and largely unknown outside Vedāntic
> circles even after the *Bhāmatī*. Which is why Alex's reference to the *Nyāya-mañjarī
> *is so exciting 🙂.
>
> Yours,
> Aleksandar
>
> Aleksandar Uskokov
>
> Senior Lector and Associate Research Scholar
>
> South Asian Studies Council & Department of Religious Studies, Yale
> University
>
> DUS, South Asian Studies
>
> The Philosophy of the Brahma-sutra: An Introduction
> <https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Brahma-sutra-Introduction-Introductions-Philosophies/dp/1350150002/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=>
>
>
> *Office Hours Sign-up:* https://calendly.com/aleksandar-uskokov
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Matthew Kapstein <mattkapstein at proton.me>
> *Sent:* Friday, August 22, 2025 1:06 PM
> *To:* Uskokov, Aleksandar <aleksandar.uskokov at yale.edu>
> *Cc:* Walter Slaje <walter.slaje at gmail.com>; Indology List <
> indology at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed
>
> As I am now traveling, I do not have the materials with me to check
> exactly what's found in the Tarkajvālā, but in one of my articles that I
> was able to access, we have a paraphrase of the passage in a 12th c.
> Tibetan author:
>
> "[Vedānta] holds that all of these inner and outer entities are of the
> nature of a single great Self  (*mahātma *). The upper regions are its
> head, the lower regions its feet, the sky its back, the directions its
> hands, the planets and constellations its hair, the peaks its breast, the
> mountain ranges its bones, the rivers its network of veins, the forests
> its body hairs and nails; its back is the celes- tial world, its forehead
> Brahmā, Dharma and Adharma are its two brows; its wrathful grimace is
> Yama, the sun and moon its eyes, its inhalations and exhalations the winds
> ..."
>
> It was the first sentence that I had in mind. Although clearly referring
> to a type of advaita doctrine, it does not mention saccidānanda, though
> perhaps the Tarkajvāla has more to say.
>
> The citation is from : 2009 “Preliminary remarks on the Grub mtha’ chen
> mo of Bya ’Chad kha ba Ye shes rdo rje,” in Sanskrit Manuscripts in China,
> ed. Ernst Steinkellner. Beijing: China Tibetology Publishing House, pp.
> 137-152.
>
> Matthew
>
>
> Matthew T. Kapstein
> Professor emeritus
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, PSL Research University, Paris
>
> Associate
> The University of Chicago Divinity School
>
> Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
>
> https://ephe.academia.edu/MatthewKapstein
>
> https://vajrabookshop.com/product/the-life-and-work-of-auleshi/
>
>
> https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501716218/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-i/#bookTabs=1
>
>
> https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501771255/tibetan-manuscripts-and-early-printed-books-volume-ii/#bookTabs=1
>
> https://brill.com/edcollbook/title/60949
>
> Sent with Proton Mail <https://proton.me/mail/home> secure email.
>
> On Friday, August 22nd, 2025 at 2:27 PM, Uskokov, Aleksandar <
> aleksandar.uskokov at yale.edu> wrote:
>
> Thank you, I was checking  Qvarnstrom, will look in more detail.
>
> Aleksandar Uskokov
>
> Senior Lector and Associate Research Scholar
>
> South Asian Studies Council & Department of Religious Studies, Yale
> University
>
> DUS, South Asian Studies
>
> The Philosophy of the Brahma-sutra: An Introduction
> <https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Brahma-sutra-Introduction-Introductions-Philosophies/dp/1350150002?_encoding=UTF8>
>
>
> *Office Hours Sign-up:* https://calendly.com/aleksandar-uskokov
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Matthew Kapstein <mattkapstein at proton.me>
> *Sent:* Friday, August 22, 2025 8:23 AM
> *To:* Uskokov, Aleksandar <aleksandar.uskokov at yale.edu>
> *Cc:* Walter Slaje <walter.slaje at gmail.com>; Indology List <
> indology at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed
>
> If I recall correctly, it is in the Tarkajvāla commentary, not the kārikā.
> You can check O. Qvarnstrom’s translation. If not there, then my memory is
> fooling me.
> M
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 13:06, Uskokov, Aleksandar <
> aleksandar.uskokov at yale.edu
> <On+Fri,+Aug+22,+2025+at+13:06,+Uskokov,+Aleksandar+%3C%3Ca+href=>>
> wrote:
>
> Dear Matthew,
>
> I don't find it in the Vedānta chapter of the Madhyamaka-hṛdaya-kārikā. It
> would be quite important if it does appear anywhere before, say, the
> Tattva-saṅgraha, since the formula, not just the list of qualities—think of
> the difference between the qualities of Brahman listed in the Taittirīya
> vs. the sac-cid-ānanda formula—is one of the hallmarks of Śaṅkara's Vedānta
> that his followers customarily use to refer to the pure (rather than the
> causal) Brahman.
>
> Yours,
> Aleksandar
>
> Aleksandar Uskokov
>
> Senior Lector and Associate Research Scholar
>
> South Asian Studies Council & Department of Religious Studies, Yale
> University
>
> DUS, South Asian Studies
>
> The Philosophy of the Brahma-sutra: An Introduction
> <https://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Brahma-sutra-Introduction-Introductions-Philosophies/dp/1350150002?_encoding=UTF8>
>
>
> *Office Hours Sign-up:* https://calendly.com/aleksandar-uskokov
> ------------------------------
> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
> Matthew Kapstein via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Sent:* Friday, August 22, 2025 5:32 AM
> *To:* Walter Slaje <walter.slaje at gmail.com>
> *Cc:* Indology List <indology at list.indology.info>
> *Subject:* Re: [INDOLOGY] Mokṣopāya completed
>
> Dear all,
>
> If memory serves me well, the qualities of Brahman enumerated in the
> citation of Jayanta are given in pre-Śankara Buddhist authors, notably
> Bhāviveka, in doxographic treatments of Vedānta.
>
> And I know of no classical Indian Buddhist references to Śankara from any
> period at all.
>
> best,
> Matthew
>
>
>
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2025 at 08:56, Walter Slaje via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info
> <On+Fri,+Aug+22,+2025+at+08:56,+Walter+Slaje+via+INDOLOGY+%3C%3Ca+href=>>
> wrote:
>
> [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 nityaśuddhabuddhamuktātmaprati pādanān mokṣasiddhir abhimatā.
>
> (1.1.4: p. 113.1): nityaśuddhabuddhamuktasvabhāva ḥ
>
> 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
>
>
> ______________________________ _________________
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>
>
>
>
> * <https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson>*
>
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-- 
Alex Watson
Professor of Indian Philosophy, Ashoka University

*https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson
<https://ashokauniversity.academia.edu/AlexWatson>*

-- 

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