Gaudapada

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Gaudapada was a Vedanta scholar in early medieval India who probably lived in the first half of the 6th century .

Statue of Gaudapada

etymology

The Sanskrit name Gaudapada (or Gaudapadacharya ) is made up of the nouns gauda ( गौड - gauḍa) sugar, molasse and pada ( पाद - pāda) foot , that means belonging to the land of sugar , whereby Bengal is meant.

Life

There are few bibliographical clues about Gaudapada's life, so an exact chronological order is not possible. What is certain is that he lived before Adi Shankara , who was a student of his pupil Govinda Bhagavatpada . Furthermore, it is certain that he must have lived after the 4th century , since he quotes Buddhist viewpoints from Nagarjuna and Asanga , the latter being dated to India in the 4th century. Gaudapada probably lived in the early 6th century. Another indirect reference to this comes from Buddhist sources in which the scholars Bhavaviveka , Santaraksita and Kamalasila quote Gauḍapada. According to Potter, Bhavaviveka was a contemporary of Dharmapala , which Chinese records date to the mid-6th century. If all of this is correct, then Gaudapada must have lived around 500 in the first half of the 6th century.

Allegedly Gaudapada founded the Shri Gaudapadacharya Math .

Relationship to Buddhism

The influence of Buddhist doctrine on Gaudapada is a sensitive issue. Some scholars such as Bhattacharya and Raju believe that Gaudapada adopted the Buddhist doctrine of vijñapti-mātra (the ultimate reality is pure consciousness) and the structure of Māyā (the nature of the world is based on four-sided negation). Gaudapada interwoven these two doctrines with the philosophy of the Mandukya Upanishad, which was later developed by Shankara.

The fourth chapter of the Karika is of particular interest, in which, according to Bhattacharya, two verses refer to Buddha and the Buddhist term asparsayoga is also borrowed. For Murti, the inevitable conclusion is that Gaudapada, as the philosopher of Vedanta, attempted to work out an Advaita interpretation of Vedanta using the Buddhist doctrine of Madhyamika and Yogachara , which he freely takes up and cites. Its end result, however, no longer has much in common with Buddhism.

The first three chapters of the Karika are based entirely on the Vedanta and Upanishads with practically no Buddhist connotations. They deal with Brahman and Atman, not Chapter 4. Murti therefore suspects that Chapter 4 was edited by someone other than Gaudapada. Richard King shares this view. In this context it is also interesting that, according to Gaudapada, Vedanta scholars never quote from Chapter 4, but only from the first three. Sarma believes that chapter 4 may have been written by Gaudapada because he was very familiar with the teachings of the Mahayana . To call him an open or hidden Buddhist for this reason is absurd, since the doctrine of Gaudapada and Buddhism are, according to Murti, totally opposite:

“The followers of Vedanta put everything on Atman (Brahman) and accept the authority of the Upanishads. As already shown in detail, the Buddhist standpoint of Nairatmya is diametrically opposed to the concept of Atman (soul, substance, the eternal and the universal). "

- TRV Murti, The Central Philosophy of Buddhism

Advaita followers have traditionally resisted Buddhist influence. However, modern research accepts that Gaudapada was exposed to Buddhist thought as he used Buddhist terminology to better explain his own ideas. Nevertheless, it would be wrong to classify him as a Buddhist rather than a Vedantist.

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His most important literary work was undoubtedly the Mandukya Karika , a commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad written in verse, also known as Gauḍapāda Kārikā and Āgama Śāstra .

The Māṇḍukya Kārikā is the oldest known, systematic treatise on Advaita Vedanta , but there are older writings of the Advaita standpoint. Before Shankara's time there were other textbooks with the same content.

Other works are attributed to Gaudapada, but their assignment is uncertain:

Gaudapada is also said to have made a commentary on the Samkhyakārikā . According to Potter, however, this is unlikely since this rather naive comment does not fit the usual depth of Gaudapada's argumentation.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sarma, Chandradhar: The Advaita Tradition in Indian Philosophy . Motilal Banarsidass, 2007, ISBN 978-81-208-1312-0 .
  2. ↑ Michael Comans: The Method of Early Advaita Vedānta: A Study of Gauḍapāda, Śaṅkara, Sureśvara, and Padmapāda . Motilal Banarsidass, 2000, ISBN 978-81-208-1722-7 .
  3. ↑ Devanathan Jagannathan: Gaudapada . University of Toronto, IEP.
  4. ↑ Potter, Karl. H .: Gaudapada . In: Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies: Advaita Vedānta up to Śaṃkara and his pupils . Volume 3. Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1981, ISBN 81-208-0310-8 , pp. 103-114 .
personal data
SURNAME Gaudapada
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaudapadacharya
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 6th century
DATE OF DEATH 6th century