Dvaita

Main article: Dvaita

Madhvacharya was also a critic of Advaita Vedānta. Advaita's nondualism asserted that Atman
(Self) and Brahman are identical, there is interconnected oneness of all Selfs and Brahman, and
there are no pluralities.[406][407] Madhva in contrast asserted that Atman (Self) and Brahman are
different, only Vishnu is the Lord (Brahman), individual Selfs are also different and depend on
Vishnu, and there are pluralities.[406][407] Madhvacharya stated that both Advaita Vedānta and
Mahayana Buddhism were a nihilistic school of thought.[408] Madhvacharya wrote four major
texts, including Upadhikhandana and Tattvadyota, primarily dedicated to criticizing Advaita.[408]

Followers of ISKCON are highly critical of Advaita Vedānta, regarding it as māyāvāda, identical to
Mahayana Buddhism.[web 21][web 22]

Influence on other traditions

Within the ancient and medieval texts of Hindu traditions, such as Vaishnavism, Shaivism and
Shaktism, the ideas of Advaita Vedānta have had a major influence.[note 70] Advaita Vedānta
influenced Krishna Vaishnavism in the different parts of India.[409] One of its most popular text,
the Bhagavata Purana, adopts and integrates in Advaita Vedānta philosophy.[410][411][412] The
Bhagavata Purana is generally accepted by scholars to have been composed in the second half of 1st
millennium CE.[413][414]

In the ancient and medieval literature of Shaivism, called the Āgamas, the influence of Advaita
Vedānta is once again prominent.[415][416][417] Of the 92 Āgamas, ten are Dvaita texts, eighteen
are Bhedabheda, and sixty-four are Advaita texts.[418][419] According to Natalia Isaeva, there is an
evident and natural link between 6th-century Gaudapada's Advaita Vedānta ideas and Kashmir
Shaivism.[420]

Shaktism, the Hindu tradition where a goddess is considered identical to Brahman, has similarly
flowered from a syncretism of the monist premises of Advaita Vedānta and dualism premises of
Samkhya–Yoga school of Hindu philosophy, sometimes referred to as Shaktadavaitavada (literally,
the path of nondualistic Shakti).[421][422][423]

Other influential ancient and medieval classical texts of Hinduism such as the Yoga Yajnavalkya,
Yoga Vashishta, Avadhuta Gitā, Markandeya Purana and Sannyasa Upanishads predominantly
incorporate premises and ideas of Advaita Vedānta.[424][425][426]

History of Advaita Vedānta

Gaudapada, one of the most important pre-Śaṅkara philosophers in Advaita tradition

Main article: History of Advaita Vedanta
Historiography
The historiography of Advaita Vedanta is coloured by Orientalist notions,[427][note 72] while
modern formulations of Advaita Vedānta, which developed as a reaction to western Orientalism and
Perennialism[429] have "become a dominant force in Indian intellectual thought."[430] According
to Michael S. Allen and Anand Venkatkrishnan, "scholars have yet to provide even a rudimentary,
let alone comprehensive account of the history of Advaita Vedānta in the centuries leading up to the
colonial period."[431]

Early Vedānta
The Upanishads form the basic texts, of which Vedānta gives an interpretation.[432] The
Upanishads do not contain "a rigorous philosophical inquiry identifying the doctrines and
formulating the supporting arguments".[433][note 73] This philosophical inquiry was performed by
the darsanas, the various philosophical schools.[435][note 74]

The Brahma Sutras of Bādarāyana, also called the Vedānta Sutra,[437] were compiled in its present
form around 400–450 AD,[438] but "the great part of the Sutra must have been in existence much
earlier than that".[438] Estimates of the date of Bādarāyana's lifetime differ between 200 BC and
200 AD.[439] The Brahma Sutra is a critical study of the teachings of the Upanishads, possibly
"written from a Bhedābheda Vedāntic viewpoint."[web 10] Bādarāyana was not the first person to
systematise the teachings of the Upanishads.[440] He refers to seven Vedantic teachers before him.
[440]

Early Advaita Vedānta

Two Advaita writings predating Maṇḍana Miśra and Shankara were known to scholars such as
Nakamura in the first half of 20th-century, namely the Vākyapadīya, written by Bhartṛhari (second
half 5th century[441]), and the Māndūkya-kārikā written by Gauḍapāda (7th century).[442] Later
scholarship added the Sannyasa Upanishads (first centuries CE[443]) to the earliest known corpus,
some of which are of a sectarian nature,[444] and have a strong Advaita Vedānta outlook.[445][446]
[447]

According to Nakamura, "there must have been an enormous number of other writings turned out in
this period [between the Brahma Sutras and Shankara], but unfortunately all of them have been
scattered or lost and have not come down to us today".[442] In his commentaries, Shankara
mentions 99 different predecessors of his Sampradaya.[223] In the beginning of his commentary on
the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad Shankara salutes the teachers of the Brahmavidya Sampradaya.[web
23] Pre-Shankara doctrines and sayings can be traced in the works of the later schools, which does
give insight into the development of early Vedānta philosophy.[442]

Gauḍapāda and Māṇḍukya Kārikā

Main article: Gaudapada
According to tradition, Gauḍapāda (6th century)[448] was the teacher of Govinda Bhagavatpada
and the grandteacher of Shankara. Gauḍapāda wrote or compiled[449] the Māṇḍukya Kārikā, also
known as the Gauḍapāda Kārikā or the Āgama Śāstra.[450] The Māṇḍukya Kārikā is a commentary
in verse form on the Māṇḍūkya Upanishad, one of the shortest Upanishads consisting of just 13
prose sentences. Of the ancient literature related to Advaita Vedānta, the oldest surviving complete
text is the Māṇḍukya Kārikā.[451] The Māṇḍūkya Upanishad was considered to be a Śruti before
the era of Adi Shankara, but not treated as particularly important.[450] In later post-Shankara period
its value became far more important, and regarded as expressing the essence of the Upanishad
philosophy. The entire Karika became a key text for the Advaita school in this later era.[452][note
75]

Gaudapada took over the Yogachara teaching of vijñapti-mātra, "representation-only," which states
that the empirical reality that we experience is a fabrication of the mind, experienced by
consciousness-an-sich,[254][note 76] and the four-cornered negation, which negates any positive
predicates of 'the Absolute'.[254][255][note 77] Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into the
philosophy of Mandukaya Upanisad, which was further developed by Shankara".[455][note 78] In
this view,

the ultimate ontological reality is the pure consciousness, which is bereft of attributes and
intentionality. The world of duality is nothing but a vibration of the mind (manodṛśya or
manaspandita). The pluralistic world is imagined by the mind (saṁkalpa) and this false projection is
sponsored by the illusory factor called māyā.[web 24]
Gauḍapāda uses the concepts of Ajātivāda to explain that 'the Absolute' is not subject to birth,
change and death. The Absolute is aja, the unborn eternal.[457] The empirical world of appearances
is considered unreal, and not absolutely existent.[457]