The Hidden Lives of Brahman: Sankara's Vedanta through His Upanisad Commentaries, in Light of Contemporary Practice

Chapter 6

 Perfecting the Life Of Brahman The Training of the Saṁskṛta Paṇḍita In this chapter I describe the social context, alluded to in the previous chapter, which frames Śaṅkara’s reliance on the widely influential forms of Saṁskṛta conditioning surveyed there: the world of brāhmaṇa teachers who have throughout history trained students in analyzing and deploying Saṁskṛta words to protect and praise the brahman-power inherent in vedic sources. Witnessing this training in southern Karnāṭaka is what led me to understand the saṁskāra described in chapter 5, developed through memorization of lists, study of classical poetry, logic and commentarial debates, and to realize that Saṁskṛta conditioning is integral to developing not only discriminating insight, but also the mutually reinforcing qualities of disenchantment and yearning that UMSbh 1.1.1 claims prepare one for inquiry into brahman’s nature. The majority of the Saṁskṛta students I observed did not consciously aspire to such disenchantment and yearning. But their training suggests ways that Śaṅkara’s brāhmaṇa students developed the sensitivity to words, imagery, and rhetoric which fueled their passion for brahman-insight. Below I portray the brahmacārins engaged in the rituals and study patterns described in chapter 3 undergoing the stages of conditioning outlined in chapter 5. I conclude the chapter with a description of Śṛṅgeri’s annual Vidvat Sabhā or “Council of the Insightful,” which publicly showcases the discourse of paṇḍitas (“learned ones”), Saṁskṛta scholars who display the ideal endpoint of such conditioning. Throughout I underscore the social conditioning that accompanies more inward forms of saṁskāra, highlighting details that resemble Śaṅkara’s allusions, in his invocation to TUbh 1, to “acquiring a taste” for Saṁskṛta and to the precise analysis and deployment of its words. I also periodically insert reminders that the love of brāhmaṇa literary culture cultivated through Saṁskṛta training lays a foundation that, for the few who become interested in Śaṅkara’s teaching, Chapter 6 the hidden lives of brahman 150 would lead to disenchantment with the world and yearning to be released from it. This glimpse of brāhmaṇa pedagogy will be especially relevant to readers who have not observed Saṁskṛta training in India, who may also wish to explore further the cultural and intellectual context of Saṁskṛta training via sources that survey in depth the history of Saṁskṛta disciplines and the sociological context for their transmission.1 Broad Patterns and Variations in Contemporary Saṁskṛta Training While the sources and instructional tools surveyed in chapter 5 are not officially part of veda, many brāhmaṇas consider them integrally linked to vedic study. The term vedāṅgas (“limbs of veda”) denotes such sources and tools, suggesting that they are peripheral to the body of veda, but also essential to its life.2 Traditionally “vedāṅga” designates six categories of veda-related study—vocabulary, grammar, ritual, pronunciation, poetic meter, and astrology—but this list requires modification for brāhmaṇa settings where traditional fire-offering is no longer performed. Adhyāpakas do still teach pronunciation and meter, which students pick up mostly by mimicking their teachers’ recitation; however very few brahmacārins learn the fire-offering ritual for which vedic syllables are designed, even if today’s veneration of twilight and food do preserve in condensed form the structure and key symbols of yajña.3 Likewise, few brahmacārin study vedic astrology directly, though they become familiar with its concepts through observing the calendrical cycle of pāṭhaśālā and temple rituals.4 As described in chapter 5, finally, vocabulary and grammar form the core of Saṁskṛta training, but even these are adaptations of older, vedic forms. Much of the ancient vocabulary of veda is left out of lexicons like the AK, and grammar is learned primarily through classical Saṁskṛta verse compositions. I intend the narrative below to represent broadly the interactions between teachers and students I observed at a variety of schools, which for the most part relied on common sources presented in a similar sequence, though I do not mention all such schools by name.5 All consistently used classical sources like the AK, NŚ, and RagV, begining with the AK and basic word drills and then progressing as described in chapter 5. Though I again rely primarily on observations...