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Brahma Sūtras (Vedānta Sūtras)

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Hinduism and Tribal Religions

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Indian Religions ((EIR))

Introduction: Author, Composition, Date, and Sources

Brahma Sūtra (BS) is the most canonical work of the Vedānta school of theology and philosophy. It belongs to the genre of sūtra literature or texts that outline a knowledge system in a string of short, topically arranged statements – sūtras or aphorisms, literally strings – providing thereby the venue of interpretation in which the system develops. As its name says, the BS is a systematization of the doctrine of Brahman from the Upaniṣads. Unlike the other sūtra compositions, whose statements, though short, are generally easy to read, the statements of the BS are not only terse but very cryptic as well: it has been said many times that they are impossible to read without a commentary. While that may be a bit of an exaggeration, it is nevertheless true that the BS leaves the impression of being intentionally esoteric.

The BS is sometimes called “the science of deliberation on Brahman” (Brahma-vicāra-śāstra) or the “science of...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Aleksandar Uskokov

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  1. Aleksandar Uskokov
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Correspondence to Aleksandar Uskokov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Anthropology, The University of North Texas Dept of Anthropology, Denton, Texas, USA

    Pankaj Jain

  2. The Graduate Theological Union , Berkeley, California, USA

    Rita Sherma

  3. Jamia Millia Islamia, Centre for the Study of Comparative Reli Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India

    Madhu Khanna

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Uskokov, A. (2018). Brahma Sūtras (Vedānta Sūtras). In: Jain, P., Sherma, R., Khanna, M. (eds) Hinduism and Tribal Religions. Encyclopedia of Indian Religions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_493-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1036-5_493-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1036-5

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