— Introduction
J Gaudapada
His Date, Life, Works etc. v work by Gauda as sufficiently well-known in Alberuni's time. Anyway Gauda the anchorite, mentioned by Alberuni, can reasonably be identified with Gaudapada, the author of the Gauda- pada-karika. The tradition of Gaudapada as being a great Yogin is also corroborated by Alberuni. One Sadasivabrahmendra in his जगद्गुरुमालास्तव refers to Gauda- pada as having expounded the bhasya of Patanjali, and as having been the preceptor of Apolonys. The commentator Atmabodhendra says Gaudapada came into contact with Apalunya ( equated with Apollonius, the Pythagorean philosopher who lived in ioo A. D. ). Even if this tradition is held to be correct, it would only show that some Indian philosopher had met the Greek philosopher, not nece- ssarily Gaudapada. Again, it is now held that the Greek accounts in this connection are not at all trustworthy. Works of Gaudapada Besides the Karikas, the following works are known traditionally to have come from Gaudapada. No definite evidence is available on this point, but it would not be wrong generally to believe in tradition unless there is evidence to the contrary
Bhasya on the Sankhyakarika of Isvarakrsna Some scholars are of opinion that the bhasya on the Sankhya- karikas is of a very poor quality and betrays no flashes of deep thought, and hence it could not have been written by Gaudapada. These same critics, curiously enough, have no hesitation in thinking highly of the Matharavriti ( bhasya by Mathara on the Sankhya- karikas, which is certainly not better in any way than Gauda- pada's bhasya and has so many passages in common with it ) which is supposed to have the honour of being translated into Chinese about the middle of the sixth century. According to some both Mathara and Gaudapada have drawn upon a common source which was known to the Chinese in translation 6 . The bhasya is a matter-of-fact tame work, but Gaudapada had really not much scope to show his brilliance here, as he was required to follow the Sankhya-karikas. Perhaps it was his first work when 6 Could it be that Mathara and Gaudapada are identical and that the Matharavritti and Gaudapadabhasya are but two editions of the same work?
