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Adi Sankaracharya and Manu Smriti
Jul 10 2007 | Views 76 |
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Among the Advaita Vedantists, the most influential philosopher is undoubtedly Adi Sankar [Adi Sankaracharya] and his greatest work on philosophy is the commentary on the Brahma Sutra or Vedanta sutra called Vedanta-bhasya.
For the purpose of understanding the attitude of the Advaita Vedantists to the Indian law givers, we may therfore reasonably focus on the works of Adi Sankar, particularly on his Vedanta bhasya.
The first question is: What is Adi Sankar's attitude to the law-givers, or more specifically, to the greatest of them: Manu. Adi Sankar leaves nothing vague about it. He quotes with great gusto an old saying (Sankar on Brahma sutra ii.1.2):
"Whatever Manu said is Medicine."
For Adi Sankar, the validity of this declaration is absolute, for it is supposed to form part of the scriptural revelation. In accordance with this, he does something which--to say the least--is most peculiar for a philosopher. He quotes the authority of the law-giver Manu as the decisive proof both in refutation and in substantiation of philosophical positions. In the Vedanta bhasya, he uses the opinon of Manu as one of the strongest evidences against the Sankhya view of Kapila and in favour of his own Advaita view. Declares Adi Sankar (Sankar on Brahma sutra ii.1.2):
"Manu himself where he glorifies the seeing of the One Self in everything implicitly blames the doctrine of Kapila...the system of Kapila contradicts the Veda and the doctrine of Manu, who follows the Veda."
This is really astonishing because Manu is not a philosopher at all. Still, Adi Sankar thinks that the validity of a philosophical view is ultimately at the law-giver's taste or distaste for it.
It will be tedious to quote all the passages in which Adi Sankar shows his great admiration for everything that Manu says. (The passage where he uses Manu to denounce the Vaisesika philosophy has been quoted by P.C.Ray as mentioned in my earlier post). I quote P.V. Kane (History of Dharmasastras vol.1, pg 145):
"Sankaracharya, in his Vedanta-bhasya, quotes Manu Smriti very frequently...in his bhasya [commentary] on the Brhadaranyaka Upanisad, he quotes Manu dozens of times...He looks upon the Manu Smriti as one of the authorities on which the author of the Vedanta-sutra relies."
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