ping in the later days of
the Upani@sads, as evidenced by the dualistic tendencies of such
Upani@sads as the S'vetas'vatara, and the like. The epic S'a@mkhya
was also the result of this dualistic development.

It seems that Badaraya@na, the writer of the _Brahma-sutras_,
was probably more a theist, than an absolutist like his commentator
S'a@nkara. Gau@dapada seems to be the most important
man, after the Upani@sad sages, who revived the monistic tendencies
of the Upani@sads in a bold and clear form and tried to
formulate them in a systematic manner. It seems very significant
that no other karikas on the Upani@sads were interpreted,
except the _Man@dukyakarika_ by Gau@dapada, who did not himself
make any reference to any other writer of the monistic
school, not even Badaraya@na. S'a@nkara himself makes the confession
that the absolutist (_advaita_) creed was recovered from
the Vedas by Gau@dapada. Thus at the conclusion of his commentary
on Gau@dapada's karika, he says that "he adores by
falling at the feet of that great guru (teacher) the adored of his
adored, who on finding all the people sinking in the ocean made
dreadful by the crocodiles of rebirth, out of kindness for all
people, by churning the great ocean of the Veda by his great
churning rod of wisdom recovered what lay deep in the heart
of the Veda, and is hardly attainable even by the immortal

423

gods [Footnote ref l]." It seems particularly significant that S'a@nkara
should credit Gau@dapada and not Badaraya@na with recovering the
Upani@sad creed. Gau@dapada was the teacher of Govinda, the
teacher of S'a@nkara; but he was probably living when S'a@nkara
was a student, for S'a@nkara says that he was directly influenced by
his great wisdom, and also speaks of the learning, self-control
and modesty of the other pupils of Gau@dapada [Footnote ref 2]. There is
some dispute about the date of S'a@nkara, but accepting the date proposed
by Bha@n@darkar, Pa@thak and Deussen, we may consider
it to be 788 A.D. [Footnote ref 3], and suppose that in order to be able to
teach S'a@nkara, Gau@dapada must have been living till at least 800 A.D.

Gau@dapada thus flourished after all the great Buddhist
teachers As'vagho@sa, Nagarjuna, Asa@nga and Vasubandhu; and
I believe that there is sufficient evidence in his karikas for thinking
that he was possibly himself a Buddhist, and considered that
the teachings of the Upani@sads tallied with those of Buddha.
Thus at the begi