Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Śaṅkara and the Authorship of the Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya and the Kaṭhopaniṣadbhāṣya

  • Article
  • Published:
International Journal of Hindu Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article investigates the authorship of the Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya and the Kaṭhopaniṣadbhāṣya, which are traditionally attributed to Śaṅkara. The first part of the article shows that according to Paul Hacker’s criteria of the specific usage of the terms avidyā, nāmarūpa, māyā, and īśvara, there are no grounds upon which to disprove the traditional attribution of the Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya and the Kaṭhopaniṣadbhāṣya to Śaṅkara, although the analysis of the Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya rests mainly on the absence of un-Śaṅkarian features. The second part of the article reports on the results of computational experiments based on new developments in authorship verification. This analysis, according to the recently introduced General Imposters framework, affirms Śaṅkara’s authorship of the texts in question.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Andrijanić, Ivan. 2017. “Traces of Reuse in Śaṅkara’s Commentary on the Brahmasūtra.” In Elisa Freschi and Philipp A. Maas, eds., Adaptive Reuse: Aspects of Creativity in South Asian Cultural History, 109–33. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Andrijanić, Ivan. 2019. “Śaṅkara and the Authorship of Śvetāśvataropaniṣad-Bhāṣya.” Journal of Hindu Studies 12, 3: 273–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Belvalkar, S. K. 1929. Shree Gopal Basu Mallik Lectures on Vedānta Philosophy: Delivered December 1925. Part One: Lectures 1–6. Poona: Bilvakuñja Publishing House.

  • Benedetto, Dario, Emanuele Caglioti, and Vittorio Loreto. 2002. “Language Trees and Zipping.” Physical Review Letters 88, 4: 1–4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, W. Norman, ed. and trans. 1958. The Saundaryalaharī or Flood of Beauty: Traditionally Ascribed to Śaṅkarācārya. Harvard Oriental Series, 43. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

  • Bryant, Edwin F. 2009. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation and Commentary. New York: North Point Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burrows, John. 2002. “ and ‘Delta’: A Measure of Stylistic Difference and a Guide to Likely Authorship.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 17, 3: 267–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deussen, Paul. 1883. Das System des Vedânta: Nach den Brahma-Sûtra’s des Bâdarâyana und dem Kommentare des Çan̄kara über Dieselben als ein Kompendium der Dogmatik des Brahmanismus vom Standpunkte des Çan̄kara aus. Leipzig: F.A. Brockhaus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eder, Maciej. 2012. “Computational Stylistics and Biblical Translation: How Reliable Can a Dendrogram Be?” In Tadeusz Piotrowski and Łukasz Grabowski, eds., The Translator and the Computer: Proceedings of a Conference Held in Wrocław, April 20–21, 2012, Organized by the Philological School of Higher Education and C&M Localization Centre, 155–70. Wrocław: WSF Press.

  • Eder, Maciej. 2015. “Does Size Matter? Authorship Attribution, Short Samples, Big Problem.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 30, 2: 167–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, Maciej. 2017. “Visualization in Stylometry: Cluster Analysis Using Networks.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 32, 1: 50–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eder, Maciej. 2018. “Authorship Verification with the Package Stylo.” Available at: https://computationalstylistics.github.io/docs/Imposters (accessed February 27, 2019).

  • Eder, Maciej, Jan Rybicki, and Mike Kestemont. 2016. “Stylometry with R: A Package for Computational Text Analysis.” The R Journal 8, 1: 107–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Evert, Stefan, Thomas Proisl, Fotis Jannidis, Isabella Reger, Steffen Pielström, Christof Schöch, and Thorsten Vitt. 2017. “Understanding and Explaining Delta Measures for Authorship Attribution.” Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 32, Supplement 2: ii4–ii16.

  • Freschi, Elisa, ed. 2015. “Reuse of Texts in Indian Philosophy” [Special issue]. Journal of Indian Philosophy 43, 2–3.

  • Freschi, Elisa and Philipp A. Maas, eds. 2017. Adaptive Reuse: Aspects of Creativity in South Asian Cultural History. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gussner, Robert E. 1976. “A Stylometric Study of the Authorship of Seventeen Sanskrit Hymns Attributed to Śaṅkara.” Journal of American Oriental Society 96, 2: 259–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gussner, Robert E. 1977. “Śaṅkara’s Crest Jewel of Discrimination: A Stylometric Approach to the Question of Authorship.” Journal of Indian Philosophy 4, 3–4: 265–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hacker, Paul. 1950. “Eigentümlichkeiten der Lehre und Terminologie Śaṅkaras: Avidyā, Nāmarūpa, Māyā, Īśvara.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 100 (n.F. 25), 1: 246–86. [Reprinted in Paul Hacker, Kleine Schriften (ed. Lambert Schmithausen), 69–109. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag (1978).]

  • Hacker, Paul 1978. “Śaṅkarācārya and Śaṅkarabhagavatpāda: Preliminary Remarks Concerning the Authorship Problem.” In Paul Hacker, Kleine Schriften (ed. Lambert Schmithausen), 41–58. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. [Originally published in New Indian Antiquary 9 (1947): 1–12, but appeared in about 1950.]

  • Harimoto, Kengo. 2014. God, Reason, and Yoga: A Critical Edition and Translation of the Commentary Ascribed to Śaṅkara on Pātañjalayogaśāstra 1.23–28. Indian and Tibetan Studies, 1. Hamburg: Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg.

  • Holmes, David I. 1994. “Authorship Attribution.” Computers and the Humanities 28, 2: 87–106.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hoorn, J. F., S. L. Frank, W. Kowalczyk, and F. van der Ham. 1999. “Neural Network Identification of Poets Using Letter Sequences.” Literary and Linguistic Computing 14, 3: 311–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingalls, Daniel H. H. 1954. “Śaṅkara’s Arguments Against the Buddhists.” Philosophy East and West 3, 4: 291–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juola, Patrick. 2006. “Authorship Attribution.” Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval 1, 3: 233–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Keselj, Vlado, Fuchun Peng, Nick Cercone, and Calvin Thomas. 2003. “N-Gram-Based Author Profiles for Authorship Attribution.” In, Proceedings of the Pacific Association for Computational Linguistics, Held at the Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, August 22–25, 2003. Paper Available at: https://web.cs.dal.ca/~vlado/papers/pacling03.pdf.

  • Kestemont, Mike, Justin Stover, Moshe Koppel, Folgert Karsdorp, and Walter Daelemans. 2016. “Authenticating the Writings of Julius Caesar.” Expert Systems with Applications 63: 86–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koppel, Moshe, Jonathan Schler, and Shlomo Argamon. 2009. “Computational Methods in Authorship Attribution.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60, 1: 9–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koppel, Moshe and Yaron Winter. 2014. “Determining if Two Documents are Written by the Same Author.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 65, 1: 178–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kukushkina, O. V., A. A. Polikarpov, and D. V. Khmelev. 2001. “Using Literal and Grammatical Statistics for Authorship Attribution.” Problems of Information Transmission 37, 2: 172–84. [Originally published in Russian in Problemy Peredachi Informatsii 37, 2 (2000): 96–108.]

  • Lutosławski, Wincenty. 1898. “Principes de stylométrie appliqués à la chronologie des Ṃuvres de Platon.” Revue des Études Grecques 11, 41: 61–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maṇḍana Miśra. 1937. Brahmasiddhi, with commentary by Śaṅkhapāṇi (ed. S. Kuppuswami Sastri). Madras Government Oriental Manuscripts Series, 4. Madras: Government Press.

  • Marschner, Käthe. 1933. Zur Verfasserfrage des dem Śaṅkarācārya zugeschriebenen Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣad-bhāṣya. Berlin-Charlottenburg: Alfred Lindner Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayeda, Sengaku. 1965a. “The Authenticity of the Bhagavadgītābhāṣya Ascribed to Śaṅkara.” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Süd-und Ostasiens und Archiv für indische Philosophie 9: 155–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayeda, Sengaku. 1965b. “The Authenticity of the Upadeśasāhasrī Ascribed to Saṅkara.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 85, 2: 178–96.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayeda, Sengaku. 1967. “On Śaṅkara’s Authorship of the Kenopaniṣadbhāṣya.” Indo-Iranian Journal 10, 1: 33–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayeda, Sengaku. 1967–68. “On the Author of the Māṇḍūkyopaniṣad- and the Gauḍapādīya-bhāṣya.” The Adyar Library Bulletin 31–32: 73–94.

  • Mendenhall, T. C. 1887. “The Characteristic Curves of Composition.” Science 9, 214: 237–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olivelle, Patrick, trans. and ed. 1998. The Early Upanisads: Annotated Text and Translation. New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Padmapāda. 1891. The Pańcapâdika of Padmapâda (ed. Râmaśâstrî Bhâgavatâchârya). The Vizianagram Sanskrit Series, 3. Benares: E. J. Lazarus & Co.

  • Pande, Govind Chandra. 1994. Life and Thought of Śaṅkarācārya. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peñas, Anselmo and Alvaro Rodrigo. 2011. “A Simple Measure to Assess Non-Response.” In, Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies, Held in Portland, Oregon, USA, June 19–24, 2011. Paper Available at: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.5555/2002472.2002646.

  • Peng, Fuchun, Dale Shuurmans, Shaojun Wang, and Vlado Keselj. 2003. “Language Independent Authorship Attribution Using Character Level Language Models.” In, Proceedings of the 10th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Held in Budapest, Hungary, April 12–17, 2003. Paper Available at: https://doi.org/10.3115/1067807.1067843.

  • Potha, Nektaria and Efstathios Stamatatos. 2017. “An Improved Impostors Method for Authorship Verification.” In Gareth J. F. Jones, Séamus Lawless, Julio Gonzalo, Liadh Kelly, Lorraine Goeuriot, Thomas Mandl, Linda Cappellato, and Nicola Ferro, eds., Experimental IR Meets Multilinguality, Multimodality, and Interaction: 8th International Conference of the CLEF Association, CLEF 2017, Dublin, Ireland, September 11–14, 2017, Proceedings, 138–44. Cham: Springer.

  • Potter, Karl H. 1981. “Kaṭhopaniṣadbhāṣya.” In Karl H. Potter, ed., Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies. Volume Three: Advaita Vedānta up to Śaṃkara and His Pupils, 280–81. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

  • Ružička, M. 1958. “Anwendung mathematisch-statistischer Methoden in der Geobotanik synthetische Bearbeitung von Aufnahmen.” Biológia (Bratislava) 13: 647–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Śaṅkara. 1910. The Works of Sri Sankaracharya. 20 volumes. Srirangam: Sri Vani Vilas Press.

  • Śaṅkara. 1981–83 [1910]. Śrī Śāṅkara Granthāvaliḥ: Complete Works of Sri Sankaracharya in the Original Sanskrit. 10 volumes. Revised Edition. Madras: Samata Books.

  • Śaṅkara. 2007 [1964 (1927–28)]. Ten Principal Upanishads with Śāṅkarabhāṣya (ed. Hari Raghunath Bhagavat). Works of Śaṅkarācārya in Original Sanskrit, 1. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

  • Seidman, Shachar. 2014. “Authorship Verification Using the Imposters Method Notebook for PAN at CLEF 2013.” In, Working Notes for CLEF 2013 Conference, Valencia, Spain, September 23–26, 2013. Paper Available at: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1179/CLEF2013wn-PAN-Seidman2013.pdf.

  • Stamatatos, Efstathios. 2009. “A Survey of Modern Authorship Attribution Methods.” Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 60, 3: 538–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stover, Justin A. and Mike Kestemont. 2016. “The Authorship of the Historia Augusta: Two New Computational Studies.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 59, 2: 140–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sundaresan, Vidyasankar. 2002. “What Determines Śaṅkara’s Authorship? The Case of the Pañcīkaraṇa.” Philosophy East and West 52, 1: 1–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sureśvara. 1891. The Naishkarmya-Siddhi of Sureśvarāchārya, with the Chandrikā of Jnānottama (ed. G. A. Jacob). Bombay Sanskrit Series, 38. Bombay: Government Central Book Depot.

  • Sureśvara. 1893. Bṛhadāraṇyakopaniṣadbhṣyavārtikam (ed. Kāśinātha Śāstrī Āgāśe). Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series, 16. Volume 3. Pune: Anandashram Sanstha.

  • Sureśvara. 1911. Taittirīyopaniṣadbhṣyavārtikam (ed. Hari Nārāyaṇa Āpaṭe). Ānandāśrama Sanskrit Series, 13. Pune: Anandashram Sanstha.

  • Tischler, Johann. 1973. “Statistische Methoden in der Indologie.” Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft 123, 2: 316–27.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Indology and Far Eastern Studies, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Zagreb University, HR-10000, Zagreb, Croatia

    Ivan Andrijanić

Authors
  1. Ivan Andrijanić
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ivan Andrijanić.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Andrijanić, I. Śaṅkara and the Authorship of the Īśopaniṣadbhāṣya and the Kaṭhopaniṣadbhāṣya. Hindu Studies 24, 257–282 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-020-09279-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11407-020-09279-z

Keywords

Search

Navigation