[Advaita-l] Re: With reference to Prapancasara

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 3 Jul 2006, Vidyasankar Sundaresan wrote:

>
> There is another text called prapancasAra, beginning with the verse 
> a-ka-ca-Ta-ta-pa-yAdi saptabhir varNavargaiH ...,

The version edited by Arthur Avalon which S.N. Shastriji mentioned also 
begins with this verse.

Avalon considers the question of authorship.  He thinks most of those who 
dispute authorship are westernized types who only do so because they can't 
believe a "monist" would be interested in such things.  Which is silly in 
the Indian context.  But he also quotes an "old Orissan pandit" whose 
opinion is that Prapanchasara is of divine origin and Shankaracharya only 
passed it down.  Thus Avalons edition is actually entitled "Prapanchasara 
Tantra."

The other interesting thing about this edition is that it includes a 
vivarana that puports to be by Padmapadacharya.  The same questions of 
authorship apply but if it is genuine then the case for Prapanchasara 
being a genuine work of Shankaracharya is much stronger IMO.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>