esent chapter has been based.

Vedanta in Gau@dapada.

It is useless I think to attempt to bring out the meaning of
the Vedanta thought as contained in the _Brahma-sutras_ without
making any reference to the commentary of S'a@nkara or any
other commentator. There is reason to believe that the _Brahma-sutras_
were first commented upon by some Vai@s@nava writers who
held some form of modified dualism [Footnote ref 1]. There have been more
than a half dozen Vai@s@nava commentators of the _Brahma-sutras_
who not only differed from S'a@nkara's interpretation, but also
differed largely amongst themselves in accordance with the
different degrees of stress they laid on the different aspects of
their dualistic creeds. Every one of them claimed that his interpretation
was the only one that was faithful to the sutras and to

___________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: This point will be dealt with in the 2nd volume, when I shall
deal with the systems expounded by the Vai@s@nava commentators of the
_Brahma-sutras_.]

421

the Upani@sads. Should I attempt to give an interpretation
myself and claim that to be the right one, it would be only
just one additional view. But however that may be, I am
myself inclined to believe that the dualistic interpretations of the
_Brahma-sutras_ were probably more faithful to the sutras than the
interpretations of S'ankara.

The _S'rimadbhagavadgita_, which itself was a work of the
Ekanti (singularistic) Vai@s@navas, mentions the _Brahma-sutras_ as
having the same purport as its own, giving cogent reasons [Footnote ref 1].
Professor Jacobi in discussing the date of the philosophical
sutras of the Hindus has shown that the references to Buddhism
found in the _Brahma-sutras_ are not with regard to the Vijnana-vada
of Vasubandhu, but with regard to the S'unyavada, but he regards
the composition of the _Brahma-sutras_ to be later than Nagarjuna.
I agree with the late Dr S.C. Vidyabhu@shana in holding that
both the Yogacara system and the system of Nagarjuna evolved
from the _Prajnaparamita_ [Footnote ref 2]. Nagarjuna's merit
consisted in the dialectical form of his arguments in support
of S'unyavada; but so far as the essentials of S'unyavada are
concerned I believe that the Tathata philosophy of As'vagho@sa
and the philosophy of the _Prajnaparamita_ contained no less.
There is no reason to suppose that the works of Nagarjuna were
better known to the