Pancaprakriya of Sarvajnatman: A study with translation, notes, and a philosophical introduction

Abstract

<p>This thesis is comprised of a translation, for the first time, of the Sanskrit philosophical work entitled Pancaprakryla which belongs to the relatively early Advaita Vedanta thinker Sarvajhatman (first half of the tenth century) and a thematic analysis of the contents of that work. The Pancaprakriya is a manual of Advalta Vedanta philosophy of language which, for Sarvajhatman, can eventually be reduced to the discernment of the proper meaning of certain freat Ubanisadic statements or mahavakya-s such as "I am Brahman" and "That thou art." It has been demonstrated in the analytic portion of the thesis that the Sarvajhatman who is the author of Samksepasariraka and the Sarvajhatman who is the author of Pancaprakriya are one and the same. In addition to this, the thesis has brought to the force the close philosophical indebtedness of Sarvajhatman to Sankara and Suresvara before him, in terms of the Advaita Vedanta philosophy of language and the problem of the locus of ignorance (ajhanasraya), though the traditional connection between Sarvajhatman and Suresvara, as direct pupil and teacher respectively, has been denied. From our analysis, Sarvajhatman appears to be the first of the relatively early Advaita Vedanta thinkers to make use of two of perhaps the most central notions in the Advaita Vedanta philosopgy of language. The first of these is the classification of Upanisadic statements about Brahman into 'great statements' (mahavakya-s) and into 'subsidiary statements' (avantaravakya-s) allowing the latter to contribute to the understanding of the former. The second is the formulation of the three-fold division of the secondary usage of language into non-inclusive secondary usage (jahallaksana), inclusive secondary usage (ajahallaksana), and both inclusive and non-inclusive secondary usage (jahadajahallaksana), along with the determinatation that it is only the last of these which is suitable for obtatning the proper import of a mahavakya.</p>