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Introduction: V1 Are the tour Prakaranas inter-related ? xxxis Sünyatā respectively held by the Vijñanavādins and the Madhyamikas, The three kinds of jñāna, the two kinds of Satya etc, are all Buddhist ideas and were borrowed by Gaudapāda from the Buddhist writers. The use of a very large number of Buddhist terms, such as अद्वय, अद्वन् (time), तायिन्, धर्मधातु, नायक, निर्मितक, वैशारद्य, संश्लेष, सङ्घात, संवृति, the simile of the अलात and मायाहस्तिन-all this points out how Gaudapāda was obsessed by Buddhistic ideas which he has taught in the fourth Prakarana. We have discussed in the Notes at the proper places, the arguments involved in the above contention. Here we shall deal with their general implications. It may be freely admitted that Gaudapāda was well-versed in Buddhistic philosophy, had studied carefully the important Buddhist writers, and had no hesitation in borrowing from them. But this does not mean that he had accepted their teachings. Gaudapāda, so to speak, attacks the Buddhists_on_their own ground and using their own phraseology, wants to prove how their teachings are wrong. Gaudapāda perhaps feels sorry that the Buddhist philosophers, having come so near the truth of Ajāti or oneness of Atman, by preaching the Vijñānavāda or Sūnyavāda were not bold or rationalists enough to understand the Vedāntic Nirvāna and hence missed their bus. Thus the Madhyamikas merely content themselves with following a middle path between eternality and annihilation, instead of accepting the Ajātivāda. Gaudapāda had ample material in the Upanişads and the Bhagavadgitā to fall back upon, in order to promulgate his Vedāntic theories. The simile and Mayahastin illustration need not be regarded as specially Buddhistic, as they had been well-known in pre-Buddhistic literature as well. Gaudapäda clearly points out wherein he differs from the Buddhists in Kárikā IV. 99, by his statemeut नैतद् बुद्धेन भाषितम्. Buddhra has told many things, but this viz Ajātivāda, he has not told ). As we have pointed out in the Notes, नैतद् बुद्धेन भाषितम् has a direct reference to the passages ... भाषिष्येडहं तव, put in the mouth of Buddha a score of times in the Lankavatāra. Attempts are made by Prof, Vidhusekhara and others to explain away the expression नैतद् बुद्धेन भाषितम् so as to make it conform with Buddhistic notions. Thus we are told that it is equal to अवचनं बुद्धवचनम् meaning that Buddha's silence on the nature of the highest truth implies that A
