The Brahma Sūtras (), also known as the Vedanta Sūtra (Sanskrit: वेदान्त सूत्र), or as Shariraka Sūtra, and Bhikshu-sūtra (latter two in monastic traditions), are a Sanskrit text which criticizes the metaphysical dualism of the influential Samkhya philosophy, and instead synthesizes and harmonizes divergent Upanishadic ideas and practices about the essence of existence, postulating Brahman as the only origin and essence of everything. The text is attributed to the sage Bādarāyaṇa, who is also called Vyāsa (arranger), but is probably an accumulation of incremental additions and changes by various authors to an earlier work, completed in its surviving form in approx. 400–450 CE. The oldest version may have been composed between 500 BCE and 200 BCE, with 200 BCE being the most likely date.
The Brahma Sūtras consist of 555 aphoristic verses (sutras) in four chapters, dealing with attaining knowledge of Brahman. Rejecting the smriti as a base of knowledge, the text declares that the Vedic Upanishads are the only acceptable source of truth, infallible revelations describing the same metaphysical Reality, Brahman, which cannot be different for different people. The text attempts to synthesize and harmonize diverse and sometimes apparently conflicting vidyas ("knowledges") of, and upasanas (meditation, worship) of the essence of existence, stating they are actually synonyms for Brahman. It does so from a bhedabheda perspective, arguing, as John Koller states: "that Brahman and Atman are, in some respects, different, but, at the deepest level, non-different (advaita), being identical."
The first chapter rejects Samkhya's view on pradhana, stating that an inert first principle cannot account for a universe which reflects purpose and intelligence. It harmonizes different views of Absolute Reality found in the Upanishads, subsuming them under the concept of Brahman. The second chapter reviews and addresses the objections raised by Samkhya and other competing orthodox schools of Hindu philosophy, Nyaya, Yoga, Vaisheshika and Mimamsa, as well as heterodox schools such as Buddhism and Jainism. The third chapter compares the vidyas and upasanas found in the Upanishads, deciding which are similar and can be combined, and which are different. The last chapter states why such a knowledge is an important human need.
The Brahma Sūtra text is one of three most important texts in Vedanta along with the Principal Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. It has been influential to various schools of Indian philosophies, but interpreted differently by the non-dualistic Shiva Advaita and Advaita Vedanta sub-schools, and the Vaishnava theistic Vishishtadvaita and Dvaita Vedanta sub-schools, as well as others. Several commentaries on the Brahma Sūtras are lost to history or yet to be found. Of the surviving ones, the most well studied commentaries on the Brahma Sūtras include the bhashya by Adi Shankara, those by the Vaishnava exegetes Srinivasa, Ramanuja, Madhvacharya, Bhaskara, Baladeva Vidyabhushan, Ramanandacharya, and that by the only Shaiva exegete, Srikantha Sivacharya.
Author and chronology The Brahma Sūtras or Brahmasutra are attributed to Badarayana. In some texts, Badarayana is also called Vyasa, which literally means "one who arranges".
Badarayana was the Guru (teacher) of Jaimini, the latter credited with authoring Mimamsa Sutras of the Mimamsa school of Hindu philosophy. This is likely, given that both Badarayana and Jaimini quote each other as they analyze each other's theories, Badarayana emphasizing knowledge while Jaimini emphasizes rituals, sometimes agreeing with each other, sometimes disagreeing, often anti-thesis of the other.Paul Deussen, The System of the Vedanta: According to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Shankara's Commentary thereon, Translator: Charles Johnston, , page 20
The Brahma Sūtras text is dated to centuries that followed Buddha and Mahavira, because it mentions and critiques the ideas of Buddhism and Jainism in Chapter 2. The text's relative chronology is also based on the fact that Badarayana quotes all major known orthodox Hindu schools of philosophy except Nyaya.Paul Deussen, The System of the Vedanta: According to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Shankara's Commentary thereon, Translator: Charles Johnston, , page 21 The exact century of its composition or completion in final form is unknown. 200 BCE seems to be the most likely date for its initial composition, with scholars such as Lochtefeld suggesting that the text was composed sometime between 500 and 200 BCE, while Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan and Dasgupta independently suggest the 2nd century BCE as more likely. Paul Deussen places it between 200 BCE and 400 CE.NV Isaeva (1992), Shankara and Indian Philosophy, State University of New York Press, , page 36
Hermann Jacobi in early 20th century suggested that Madhyamaka Buddhist concepts such as Sunyavada, acknowledged in the Brahma Sūtras, may be a late invention, and suggests that both Sunyavada and Brahma Sūtras may therefore have emerged between 200 and 450 CE. Daniel Ingalls disagreed with Jacobi chronology in his 1954 paper, critiquing Jacobi's assumptions and interpretation of sutras 2.2.28-32 in dating the entire document, and stating that "the Brahma Sūtras could not have been composed later than the start of the common era".Daniel Ingalls (1954), Sankara's Arguments Against the Buddhists, Philosophy East and West, Volume 3, Number 4, page 299Gregory Darling (2007), An Evaluation of the Vedāntic Critique of Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 6-7 According to Hajime Nakamura, the Brahma Sūtras were likely complete in the current form between 400 and 450 CE. The existence of earlier versions of the Brahma Sūtras, and multiple authors predating Badarayana, is supported by textual evidence.
Some scholars, such as Sengaku Mayeda, state that the Brahma Sūtras that have survived into the modern times may be the work of multiple authors but those who lived after Badarayana, and that these authors composed the currently surviving Brahma Sūtras starting about 300 BCE through about 400-450 CE.Śaṅkarācārya; Sengaku Mayeda (2006), A Thousand Teachings: The Upadeśasāhasrī of Śaṅkara, State University of New York Press, , page 12 Nakamura states that the original version of Brahma Sūtras is likely very ancient and its inception coincides with the Kalpa Sutras period (1st-millennium BCE).Klaus Witz (1998), The Supreme Wisdom of the Upaniṣads: An Introduction, Motilal Banarsidass, , page 53 with footnote 118
Natalia Isaeva states, "on the whole, scholars are rather unanimous, considering the most probable date for Brahma Sūtras sometime between the 2nd-century BCE and the 2nd-century CE.
Assigning a later date because of mention of concepts of Buddhism etc., is rejected by Madhvacharya in his work, Anuvyakhyana. He explains the mention of different philosophies and their criticism in the Brahma Sūtras as refutations of general ideas, which are eternal, and not of specific schools of thought like Buddhism etc. So, there is no necessity to assign a later date.
Structure The Brahma Sūtras consist of 555 aphorisms or sūtras, in four chapters (adhyāya), with each chapter divided into four parts (pāda). Each part is further subdivided into sections called Adhikaraņas with sutras. Some scholars, such as Francis Clooney, call the Adhikaraņas as "case studies" with a defined hermeneutic process.Francis Clooney (1998), Scholasticism: Cross-Cultural and Comparative Perspectives (Editor: Jose Ignacio Cabezon), State University of New York Press, , pages 178-179Krishna Roy (2011), Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy (Editors: DP Chattopadhyaya, LE Embree and J Mohanty), State University of New York Press, , page 293-294
+ Sutras distribution in the Brahma SūtrasS. K. Belvalkar (1936), Dṛṣṭāntas in The Brahmasūtras, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 1, No. 1, pages 28-32 Section 1st Pada 2nd Pada 3rd Pada 4th Pada Total Adhyaya 1 31 32 43 28 134 Adhyaya 2 37 45 53 22 157 Adhyaya 3 27 41 66 52 186 Adhyaya 4 19 21 16 22 78 Total Sutras: 555
Each Adhikaraņa of Brahma Sūtras has varying numbers of sutras, and most sections of the text are structured to address the following:Gregory Darling (2007), An Evaluation of the Vedāntic Critique of Buddhism, Motilal Banarsidass, , pages 7-8 Sangati (सङ्गति): connection between sections, synthesis, or coming together of knowledge. Setting the context. Vishaya (विषय): subject, issue or topic Vismaya (विस्मय): doubt, uncertainty or perplexity. Also called Sandeha (संदेह) Purva-paksha (पूर्वपक्ष): prima facie view, or prior part and arguments Siddhanta (सिद्धान्त): theory and arguments presented, proposed doctrine, or conclusions
The Brahma Sūtras text has 189 Adhikaranas.George Thibaut, Vedanta Sutras Part 1, , Volume 34 (Editor: Max Muller), Oxford University Press, pages xxxii-lxxvi Each section (case study) in the text opens with the Mukhya (chief, main) sutra that states the purpose of that section, and the various sections of the Brahma Sūtras include Vishaya-Vakyas (cite the text sources and evidence they use).
Sutras were meant to assist the memory of the student who had gone through long discussions with his guru, as memory aids or clues and maximum thoughts were compressed in a few words which were unambiguous, giving the essence of the arguments on the topic.Sutras were memory clues The Sutras of the text, states Adi Shankara in his commentary, are structured like a string that ties together the Vedanta texts like a garland of flowers.
Contents The text is part of the Prasthanatrayi, or the three starting points for the Vedanta school of Hindu philosophy. The Principal Upanishads constitute the Sruti prasthāna or "starting point of heard scriptures," while the Bhagavad Gita constitutes the Smriti prasthāna or the "starting point of remembered canonical base", and the Brahma Sūtras constitute the Nyāya prasthāna (न्याय प्रस्थान) or "starting point of reasoning canonical base."
Sengaku Mayeda states that the Brahma Sūtras distills and consolidates the extensive teachings found in a variety of Upanishads of Hinduism, summarizing, arranging, unifying and systematizing the Upanishadic theories, possibly "written from a Bhedābheda Vedāntic viewpoint." The Vedic literature had grown into an enormous collection of ideas and practices, ranging from practical rituals (karma-kanda) to abstract philosophy (jnana-kanda), with different and conflicting theories on metaphysical problems, diverse mutually contradicting unsystematized teachings on rituals and philosophies present in the Upanishads. Traditions of textual interpretation developed. While Jaimini's Mimamsa-sutra focused on externalized rituals as the spiritual path, Badarayana's Brahma Sūtras, the only surviving work of several of such compendia, focused on internalized philosophy as the spiritual path.Paul Deussen, The System of the Vedanta: According to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Shankara's Commentary thereon, Translator: Charles Johnston, , pages 19-25, 6-12