ajAti vAda

elation of the universe to brahman, made the equivalent mAyA completely dependent
upon the reality of brahman. maNDAna miSra, Sankara's contemporary, also developed
powerful arguments that denied ultimate reality to difference. Between Sankara and
maNDana, advaita vedAnta became the most important school of vedAnta, and indeed
of all Indian philosophical thought. However, after this time, the followers of rival
schools started re-evaluating their positions, modifying their views and began posing
new objections to advaita. The later teachers in the advaita tradition lived and worked in
such a milieu.
Among the works of Sankara's immediate disciples (8th century CE), toTaka's
SrutisArasamuddhAraNa did not attract sub-commentaries from later authors, while no
texts attributed to hastAmalaka were widely known. sureSvara's upanishad-bhAshyavArttikAs
and the naishkarmayasiddhi, and padmapAda's pancapAdikA influenced the
course of post-Sankaran advaita vedAnta significantly. Soon after their time, vAcaspati
miSra (9th century CE), wrote his bhAmatI commentary on Sankara's brahmasUtra
bhAshya, and prakASAtman (10th century CE) wrote a vivaraNa to the pancapAdikA.
Later authors sometimes wrote independent treatises of their own, but more often chose
an earlier text to comment upon, thus building up sets of commentaries and subcommentaries,
which make the philosophical views of the sub-schools clearer. These
authors may be classified under four heads for the sake of convenience -
• those who closely followed sureSvara's line of thought (e.g. sarvajnAtman,
madhusUdana sarasvatI),
• those who followed the pancapAdikA and prAkASAtman's vivaraNa commentary
thereon (the vivaraNa school),
• those who followed vAcaspati's line (the bhAmatI sub-school), and
• those who made independent critiques of difference and thus established nonduality
(e.g. SrIharsha and citsukha).
Both the bhAmatI and vivaraNa lines base themselves upon differing interpretations of
SankarAcArya's brahmasUtra bhAshya. Since the brahmasUtras continued to be the
defining source for all vedAnta schools, the bhAmatI and vivaraNa schools attained the
most prominence in the dialogue that developed between advaita and rival vedAnta
schools on the one hand, and advaita vedAnta and non-vedAnta schools on the other.
THE PROBLEM OF ONE VS. MANY
Transliteration Key
SankarAcArya, following the upanishads, asserts that the sole cause of the universe is
the One brahman that is really nirguNa. The problem with asserting One brahman that is
without parts, changeless and eternal, as the only cause of the universe is this - the