著者

湯田 豊

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文学研究所報 (ISSN:02877082)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, pp.53-75, 2001-03

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Out of the vedic hymns and the Upanishads have arisen many schools of Indian Philosophy such as the six systems and the materialism besides the Buddhist and Jaina doctrines. Vai s e s ika, Nyaya, Samkhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta are called six systems of Philosophy (Roppa Tetsugaku). There are a variety of Vedanta schools. Above all, Advaita vedanta, represented by that famous Sankara expresses the genius of Hindu Philosophical thought. Advaita means "not-two" or the absence of duality, and vedanta means the end or the highest point of knowledge, referring to the Upanisads. The root of Advaita vedanta is to be sought into the earliest philosophical fragments from the Gaudapadiya-karika. Without some knowledge of Gaudapadiya-karika, we are unable to understand the Advaita Philosophy of Sankara and his followers. To my regret, these fragments have been overlooked by many scholars for a long time. I took my first step toward understanding these fragments by means of my own translation. None the less, there are not a few translations of Gaudapadiya-karika. Well known are, for example, Paul Deussen's German translation (1897), Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya's (1943) and T.M.P. Mahadeva's English translations. Em Lesim's French translation (1944) and Hajime Nakamura's Japanese translation (1955) are within scholars' reach. Now, we possess new translations, such as Richter-Ushanas's German translation, and Thomas E. Wood's and Richard King's English translations. In my opinion, King's translation is best, in spite of his translation being incomplete. But, King's "A Running Translation of the Gaudapadiya-karika" is nearly a complete one. This text is a philosophical work. Traditionally, it has been said that it was written by a singular author named Gaudapada, who is known as the teacher of Sankara's teacher (Govinda). A close examination of these fragments discloses that it was not composed by a single hand, namely, Gaudapada. These fragments consist of four chapters (prakarana). These prakaranas are as follows : I. Agama-prakarana, II. Vaitathya-prakarana, III. Advaita-prakarana, IV. Alatasanti-prakarana. There is no doubt that the fourth chapter (Alatasanti-prakarana) is composed separated from other three chapters. But, there is "family resemblance" between II-IV, while I is to be treated as a separate text. Never the less, Gaudapadiya-karika I approves of advaita (non-dualism) and ajativada (the theory of non-origination) Therefore, I has some phisophical connection with II, III and IV. We are in a position to treat I-IV as a whole, integrating them into a whole. We can discover in these fragments I-IV "Gaudapadian" thought (King's phrase). The most inportant prakarana is IV (Alatasantiprakarana). Its central themes are ajativada and asparsa-yoga (the yoga of no contact). Alatasantiprakarana is deeply influenced by Madhyamika-and Yogacara (Vijnanavada) Systems. Gaudapadiyakarika is the synthetic composition of plural authors. This text was composed by them under the influence of Mahayana Buddhism. I am of the opinion that it has been composed by them as a whole in the sixth century. In translating "Gaudapadian" text, I kept three points in mind. First, I have made an every effort to interpret the text in the mahayana context. If we overlook the background of Madhyamika and Yogacara systems, the "Gaudapadian" thougth is not to be fully understood. Secondly, Gaudapadiya-karika represents an attempt to reconcile advaita vedanta with the Mahayana Buddhism. Gaudapadiya-karika makes a frequent use of Buddhist terms and vocabraries in explaining advaita philosophy. There is, I believe, an unsurmountable gap between Advaita vedanta and Buddhist Philosophy. We have to be aware of fundamentally different stances of Advaita vedanta and Buddhism. Thirdly, my earnest hope was to try to translate "Gaudapadian" text as faithfully as possible, thus, to let the voice of its authors hear beyond a language barrier. However, I am not sure if I can suc