ajAti vAda

The vishNu purANa is in the form of a dialogue between parASara and his student
maitreya. The Rshi parASara also finds mention in the advaita guru-paramparA. In this
purANa, the dialogue of the sage, Rbhu with nidAgha is also recounted, where the
supreme teaching of non-duality is elaborated briefly. This Rbhu gItA is also found in
other purANas. Similarly, ashTAvakra is another legendary name associated
traditionally with the teaching of advaita in the ashTAvakra-gItA. These figures are thus
early advaitins referred to in the purANas.
Others -
Since Sankara provides some quotes from previous writers in his tradition, we come to
know of names of a few pre-Sankaran vedAntins, although their works are no longer
extant. Thus, bhagavAn upavarsha is the author of vRttis to the brahmasUtra and also
probably the bhagavad-gItA. sundara pANDya wrote vArttikas to upavarsha's vRttis,
while brahmAnandin wrote the chAndogyopanishad-vAkya, and drAviDAcArya wrote
a bhAshya on brahmAnandin's vAkya. [2-4] kASakRtsna, whose opinion is listed in the
brahmasUtra (avasthite: - iti kASakRtsna:), may also be taken as a pre-Sankaran advaita
vedAntin. The same name is also found in old grammatical tradition. Another very
important pre-Sankaran advaitin is bhartRhari, the grammarian. He is the author of
works on grammatical philosophy like the vAkyapadIya, and a commentary on
patanjali's mahAbhAshya, the famous work on pAnini's grammar. He is also credited
with a collection of poems called nIti-Sataka, SRngAra-Sataka and vairAgya Sataka.
Although bhartRhari is mainly a grammarian, and his theory of sphoTa-vAda is not
accepted by classical advaita vedAnta, his philosophy of grammar is explicitly based on
the non-dual brahman. Also, even with philosophical disagreements, bhartRhari's
vairAgya-Sataka is often quoted by later advaitins. To be sure, there were also pre-
Sankaran representatives of non-advaita vedAnta traditions, many of whom seem to
have been bhedAbheda-vAdins of one kind or the other - proponents of a doctrine of
identity-in-difference. Chief among them are the names of auDulomi, Asmarathya (both
mentioned in the brahmasUtras), bhartRprapanca, brahmadatta, bhartRmitra and
bodhAyana.
GAUDAPADA
Transliteration Key
gauDapAda is the first historically known author in the advaita vedAnta tradition, whose
work is still available to us. He may be said to be the pioneer of the ajAti vAda school in
advaita vedAnta. gauDapAda is traditionally said to have been the guru of govinda
bhagavatpAda, who was the guru of SankarAcArya. Not much is known about
gauDapAda, the person. The name gauDa indicates that he was a north Indian by birth,
and many places, from Kashmir to Bengal, have been postulated as his home. The