Introduction
Badarayana (IAST Bādarāyaṇa; Devanāgari बादरायण) is an Indian philosopher who is an avatar of Lord Narayana(Vishnu), known in Vaishnava siddhanta as Sri Vedavyasa Mahamuni who is the guru to Sri Madhvacharya.He resides till today in Vedavyasa ashrama,near Badrinath,which is not visible and unreachable by human beings. He wrote the foundational philosophical treatise Vedanta school of philosophy.
The date of Badarayana and his Brahma Sutras is uncertain. Different scholars have dated the Brahma Sutras variously from 500 BCE to 450 CE. The Brahma Sutras of Bādarāyana, also called the Vedanta Sutra, were compiled in its present form around 400–450 CE, but "the great part of the Sutra must have been in existence much earlier than that". Estimates of the date of Bādarāyana's lifetime differ between 200 BCE and 200 CE.
Works
Badarayana is regarded as having written the basic text of the Vedanta system, the Vedāntasūtra a.k.a. Brahmasūtra. He is thus considered the founder of the Vedānta system of philosophy.
Sources
- Balasubramanian, R. (2000). "Introduction".In Chattopadhyana (ed.). History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Volume II Part 2: Advaita Vedanta. Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
- Nakamura, Hajime (1950a), A History of Early Vedanta Philosophy. Part One (1990 Reprint), Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited
- Pandey, S.L. (2000), Pre-Sankara Advaita. In: Chattopadhyana (gen.ed.), "History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Volume II Part 2: Advaita Vedanta", Delhi: Centre for Studies in Civilizations