English Translations of Eastern Sacred Texts

In the late 1800s, fifty volumes of the Sacred Books of the East series were published in English. These whetted the appetite of the English-speaking world for the wisdom of the East. Since then, hundreds upon hundreds of English translations of Eastern sacred texts have been published.

We who study the Ancient and Ageless Wisdom today have many times more Eastern sacred texts available to us in English than were available to those who lived and worked in the 1800s. In order to help us take advantage of them, it is proposed to post many of the best and most important of these English translations here.

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 8:41am

30. Mahadevan, T. M. P. "Gaudapada Adi Sesa and Vasistha." Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 2, July 1948, pp. 88-95.

31. Mahadevan, T. M. P. "The Place of Reason and Revelation in the Philosophy of an Early Advaitin." Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Philosophy (Amsterdam, August 11-18, 1948), Amsterdam: 1949, pp. 247-255. [the early Advaitin is Gaudapada]

32. Sastri, S. S. "The Relation between Mandukya Upanishad and the Karikas." Brahmavidya, Kumbakonam, Advaita Sabha, vol. 2, no. 2, 1950, pp. 1-7.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_30-32.pdf, 2.5 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 8:44am

33. Majumdar, Jnanendralal. "Philosophy of Gaudapada (Alatasanti-Prakaranam)." Journal of the Ganganatha Jha Research Institute, vol. 8, pt. 2, Feb. 1951, pp. 115-128; pt. 3, May 1951, pp. 233-248; pt. 4, Aug. 1951, pp. 355-370; vol. 9, pt. 1, Nov. 1951, pp. 11-24.

Attachments:

gaudapada_article_33.pdf, 5.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 8:49am

34. Karmarkar, R. D. "‘Dvipadam Vara’ in Gaudapadakarika (IV.1)." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute,
vol. 32, 1951, pp. 166-173.

35. Karmarkar, R. D. "Was Sankara the Author of the Commentary on Gaudapadakarikas Generally Attributed to Him?" Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, vol. 36, 1955, pp. 292-297. [paper read at the 1953 All-India Oriental Conference]

36. Karmarkar, R. D. "Mutual Relation of the Yogavasistha, the Lankavatarasutra and the Gaudapada-karikas." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, vol. 36, 1955, pp. 298-305. [paper read at the 1953 All-India Oriental Conference]

37. Chakraborty, Nirod Baran. "Gaudapada: His Works and Views." Calcutta Review, vol. 145, no. 1, Oct. 1957, pp. 89-96.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_34-37.pdf, 4.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 8:54am

38. Sharma, B. N. K. "The Problem of the Upanisadic Theory of the Agama Prakarana of Gaudapada." Bharatîya Vidya, vol. 17, nos. 3 & 4, 1957, pp. 96-121.

39. Shastri, A. D. "Gaudapada-Karika--IV-1--An Interpretation." Bulletin of the Chunilal Gandhi Vidyabhavan, vol. 5, Aug. 1958, pp. 51-53.

40. Bhattacharya, Surendranath. "Gaudapada on Maya and Avidya." Prabuddha Bharata, vol. 65, no. 5, May 1960, pp. 210-211.

41. Kawada, Kumataro. "Fundamental Difference between Buddhistic and Vedantic Philosophies." Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies, vol. 9, no. 1, Jan. 1961, pp. 410-403 (1-8). [discusses Gaudapada’s Mandukya-karika 4.99]

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_38-41.pdf, 5.1 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 9:22am

42. Mayeda, Sengaku. "On the Author of the Mandukyopanisad- and the Gaudapadiya-bhasya." Adyar Library Bulletin, vols. 31-32, 1967-68, pp. 73-94.

43. Warrier, A. G. Krishna. "Gaudapada and Sankara: (A Study in Contrast)." Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, vols. 48 & 49, 1968, pp. 179-186.

44. Joshi, L. M. "Gaudapada’s Rapproachment between Buddhism and Vedanta." Rtam: Journal of the Akhila Bharatiya Sanskrit Parishad, vol. 1, no. 1, July 1969, pp. 11-22.

45. Mainkar, T. G. "Gaudapada: His Life." Summary in Proceedings of the Twenty-sixth International Congress of Orientalists, New Delhi, January 4-10, 1964, vol. 3, part 1, Poona: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1969, pp. 514-515.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_42-45.pdf, 4.7 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 9:26am

46. Sastri, N. Aiyaswami. "A New Approach to Gaudapadakarika." Bulletin of Tibetology, vol. 8, no. 1, Feb. 1971, pp. 15-46.

47. Hacker, P. "Notes on the Mandukyopanisad and Sankara’s Agamasastravivarana." In India Maior: Congratulatory Volume Presented to J. Gonda, ed. J. Ensink and P. Gaeffke, pp. 115-132. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1972.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_46-47.pdf, 5.8 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 9:30am

48. Potter, Karl H. "Was Gaudapada an Idealist?" In Sanskrit and Indian Studies: Essays in Honour of Daniel H. H. Ingalls, ed. M. Nagatomi, B. K. Matilal, J. M. Masson, and E. C. Dimock Jr., pp. 183-199. Dordrecht: D. Reidel Publishing Company, 1979.

49. Kaplan, Stephen. "A Critique of an Ontological Approach to Gaudapada’s Mandukya Karikas." Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. 11, 1983, pp. 339-355.

50. Kenge, C. T. "Nagarjuna and Gaudapada." in Madhyamika Dialectic and the Philosophy of Nagarjuna, pp. 263-268. Sarnath, Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 1985.

51. Lindtner, Christian. "Remarks on the Gaudapadiya-Karikas (GK)." Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 28, 1985, pp. 275-279.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_48-51.pdf, 4.4 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 9:34am

52. King, Richard. "Sunyata and Ajati: Absolutism and the Philosophies of Nagarjuna and Gaudapada." Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. 17, 1989, pp. 385-405.

53. Kaplan, Stephen. "The Yogacara Roots of Advaita Idealism? Noting a Similarity between Vasubandhu and Gaudapada." Journal of Indian Philosophy, vol. 20, 1992, pp. 191-218.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_52-53.pdf, 4.6 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 13, 2011 at 9:45am

54. Umapathy, Ranjan. "The Mandukya Upanisad and Karikas: The Advaitic Approach." Indian Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 3, July 1993, pp. 243-261.

55. Kaplan, Stephen. "Culture, Genre and the Mandukya Karika: philosophical inconsistency, historical uncertainty, or textual discontinuity?" Asian Philosophy, vol. 6, no. 2, 1996, pp. 129-145.

56. Review by J. W. de Jong of Richard King’s Early Advaita Vedanta and Buddhism, in Indo-Iranian Journal, vol. 40, 1997, pp. 76-81. [notes, at the end, the parallel with Yoga-Vasistha; in particular, the Kashmiri recension 7.195.63 = Gaudapada-karika 4.1]

57. Sundaram, P. K. "Gaudapada and Buddhism." Adyar Library Bulletin, vol. 62, 1998, pp. 95-97.

Attachments:

gaudapada_articles_54-57.pdf, 4.9 MB

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Permalink Reply by David Reigle on December 21, 2011 at 6:27pm

So, if Gaudapada is regarded as being such a great teacher, what does he teach? All agree that he teaches ajati, that nothing is ever born, and he does so not by appeal to the authority of scripture, but rather through the use of reasoning. Beyond that, it depends on who you listen to, as may be seen in the many articles posted here.

Some say that he teaches Buddhist ideas. Others say that he teaches only pure Advaita Vedanta ideas. Some say that he borrowed from Nagarjuna and Buddhist scriptures. Others say that he borrowed nothing, and explained only the ideas found in Hindu scriptures. Some say that Sankaracarya in his commentary explains exactly what Gaudapada meant in his verses or karikas. Others say that Sankaracarya in his commentary shows remarkable ignorance of what the terms used by Gaudapada meant.

On all this, a few observations may be made. It is human nature to project the way we ourselves are onto those we see around us. A truthful person is prone to see others as truthful. An untruthful person is prone to see others as untruthful. For many centuries now, humanity has lived in an either/or way of perceiving. If a man is a Buddhist, he is not a Hindu. If a woman is a Hindu, she is not a Buddhist. Therefore, Gaudapada must have been either a Hindu or a Buddhist. Or at least, we must see him that way.

Seeing Gaudapada as a Hindu and not a Buddhist becomes almost imperative for many, because once the dividing lines are drawn, other pressures come into play. Certain Hindu writers of Vedanta schools other than Advaita have accused Gaudapada's Advaita Vedanta of being Buddhism in disguise. Advaita Vedantins are therefore called upon to defend themselves against this charge. They must show that Gaudapada was an orthodox, card-carrying Hindu, who at most only used Buddhist ideas to combat the Buddhists and prove the truth of Advaita Vedanta.

Thus, even the greatest of teachers must fit our molds. Although we regard them as higher and more broad-minded than ourselves, their broad-mindedness cannot exceed our conceptions. Is it not true that the Buddha came to refute Hinduism? Did not Sankaracarya come after him to defeat the Buddhists and restore Hinduism? This must be true, because it is what we have always heard and read. Therefore his guru's guru, Gaudapada, could not have accepted or advocated Buddhist ideas, since we know (or at least believe) that these are contrary to Hindu ideas.

Now that our world has become smaller and our minds have become larger, thanks to modern communications and transportation and information access, we may want to take another look at some of these thoughts that have conditioned us and our predecessors for so long. Today, many of us have seen people of other religions and other countries and other races in real life. Perhaps at an airport, we noticed that their babies cry just like our babies. Their mothers comfort them just like our mothers. The whole world's outlook has broadened.

We may no longer want to buy into the dichotomy of thought that we see in many of the books and articles about Gaudapada. A broader perspective may now be in order. It may be worth a little of our time to look at what Gaudapada taught from a Theosophical perspective.

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Permalink Reply by Capt. Anand Kumar on December 21, 2011 at 8:12pm

"Dichotmoy of Thought" is a beautiful analysis of how we have convinced ourselves to think within our own Ring Pass-Nots of Hinduism, Buddhism etc. Time has come to break free from the traditional models and recognize the teachings of the great teachers for purely what those are worth rather than attaching a label. Perhaps a seprate dicussion on this topic will permit us to examine it in detail.

Thank You David for bringing this out in the open.

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Permalink Reply by Ajay Jaiswal on October 4, 2017 at 9:37am

Hello, dear Sir David,

First of all 'sincere thanks' for discussing such subtle thoughts on Gaudapada and also for your collections of articles provided here.

I am a research scholar in Center for Philosophy, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. I am highly interested in the ancient mystical traditions of Upanishads, Tantra, Buddism, Shaivism, and Shaktism.Currently, I am researching on Gaudapada and Vasubandhu. The entire discussion here was really helpful.

I would like to contact you more for some intimate discussions and learning. A direct meeting would also be enlightening for me.

Eagerly waiting for your Reply.

Respect and Thanks.