eration the intrinsic merits of /S/a@nkara's work which, as a
piece of philosophical argumentation and theological apologetics,
undoubtedly occupies a high rank, the preference here given to it will
be easily understood.

But to the European--or, generally, modern--translator of the
Vedanta-sutras with /S/a@nkara's commentary another question will of
course suggest itself at once, viz. whether or not /S/a@nkara's
explanations faithfully render the intended meaning of the author of the
Sutras. To the Indian Pandit of /S/a@nkara's school this question has
become an indifferent one, or, to state the case more accurately, he
objects to it being raised, as he looks on /S/a@nkara's authority as
standing above doubt and dispute. When pressed to make good his position
he will, moreover, most probably not enter into any detailed comparison
of /S/a@nkara's comments with the text of Badaraya/n/a's Sutras, but
will rather endeavour to show on speculative grounds that /S/a@nkara's
philosophical view is the only true one, whence it of course follows
that it accurately represents the meaning of Badaraya/n/a, who himself
must necessarily be assured to have taught the true doctrine. But on the
modern investigator, who neither can consider himself bound by the
authority of a name however great, nor is likely to look to any Indian
system of thought for the satisfaction of his speculative wants, it is
clearly incumbent not to acquiesce from the outset in the
interpretations given of the Vedanta-sutras--and the Upanishads--by
/S/a@nkara and his school, but to submit them, as far as that can be
done, to a critical investigation.

This is a task which would have to be undertaken even if /S/a@nkara's
views as to the true meaning of the Sutras and Upanishads had never been
called into doubt on Indian soil, although in that case it could perhaps
hardly be entered upon with much hope of success; but it becomes much
more urgent, and at the same time more feasible, when we meet in India
itself with systems claiming to be Vedantic and based on interpretations
of the Sutras and Upanishads more or less differing from those of
/S/a@nkara. The claims of those systems to be in the possession of the
right understanding of the fundamental authorities of the Vedanta must
at any rate be examined, even if we should finally be compelled to
reject them.

It appears that already at a very early period the Vedanta-sutras had
come to be looked upon as an author