248 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
Who is this Badarayana? Why did he compose these Sutras and when did he compose them? Beyond the name nothing is known about Badarayana. [1] It is not even certain that it is the real name of the author. There is a considerable uncertainty regarding the authorship of these Sutras even among his chief commentators. Some say that the author is Badarayana. Others say that the author of the Sutra is Vyas. The rest say that Badarayana and Vyas are one and the same person. Such is the bewildering conflict of opinion regarding the author of the Sutras.
Why did he compose these Sutras ? That the Brahmins should undertake to systematize the Karmakand portion of the Vedic literature one can quite understand. The Brahmins were deeply concerned with the Karmakand. Their very existence, their livelihood depended upon the systematization of the Karmakand portion of the Vedic literature. The Brahmins on the other hand had no interest in the ‘Gnankand’ portion of the Vedic literature. Why should they have made an attempt to systematize it? The question has not even been raised. But it is an important question and the answer to that must also be very important. Why the question is important and what the answer is I shall discuss later on.
There are two other questions with regard to the Vedanta Sutras. First is this. Is this work theological in character or is it purely philosophical in its nature? Or is it an attempt to tie down pure philosophy to the apron strings of established theology and thereby to make it innocuous and harmless. The other question relates to the commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras. There have been altogether five commentaries on the Vedanta Sutras by five eminent men all of whom are called Acharyas (doctors of learning) by reason of their intellectual eminence. They are (1) Shankaracharya (788 A.D. to 820 A.D.), (2) Ramanujacharya
(1017 A.D. to 1137 A.D.), (3) Nimbarkacharya (died about 1162 A.D.),
(4) Madhavacharya (1197-1276 A.D.) and (5) Vallabhacharya (born
1417 A.D.). The commentaries of these Acharyas on the Vedanta Sutras have become far more important than the Vedanta Sutras. The point of some significance is that on the text of one and the same collection of the Vedanta Sutras, an attempt has been made by those five Acharyas to found five different systems of thought. According to Shankara, the Vedanta Sutras teach absolute monism. According to Ramanuja, qualified monism. According to
1 The same is true of Jaimini. As Kane says “Hardly anything is known about Jaimini. There is a Brahmana, a Srauta Sutra and a Grihyasutra ascribed to Jaimini. But it is hardly likely that they are the works of the founder of the Purvamimansa. In the tarpana in the Asvalayan Grihya Sutra Jaimini occurs along with Sumantu, Vaishyampayana. In the Bhagwat Purana Jaimini is said to be the teacher of Sumantu and a promulgator of Samaveda. The Panchatantra tells us that an elephant crushed to death Jaimini—the author of the Mimansa. “A brief sketch of the Purva Mimansa System”, p. 12.