Krsna's Person and Pedagogy in the Gita Commentaries of Samkara, Sridhara and Madhusudana

Abstract

The Bhagavad-gita (Gita) is a narrative dialogue between Krsna as teacher and Arjuna as pupil. This thesis considers Krsna's person and pedagogy in three Advaita Vedantin Gita commentaries - Samkara's Gitabhasya, Sridhara's Subodhini and Madhusudana's Gitagudharthadipika. There has been no comparative study of how Samkara, Sridhara and Madhusudana interpret the person and pedagogy of Krsna in the Gita. I provide this by asking my primary research question: How does examining the relation perceived between Krsna's person and pedagogy help us to understand Krsna's place in Advaita Vedanta in Samkara's Gitabhasya, Sridhara's Subodhini and Madhusudana's Gitagudharthadipika? The 'divide' between Advaita Vedanta (non-dualism) and bhakti (devotion) is a central question in the secondary literature on Krsna in Advaita Vedantin Gita commentaries. This thesis addresses this divide in a novel way, by asking two key questions to begin with: i) What are the commentators' own questions? and ii) Why is Arjuna drowning, and how can Krsna save him? Samkara, Sridhara and Madhusudana all take the stock metaphor of the ocean of rebirth (Gita 12.7) and apply it specifically to Arjuna, presenting Arjuna 'drowning in the ocean of grief and delusion' as a key intellectual problem. Looking at the questions the commentators set up themselves, we find that each has a key focus. For Samkara it is agency, for Sridhara it is the notion of body, and for Madhusudana it is the concept of personhood. In this thesis, I demonstrate how these themes act both as hermeneutical and pedagogical keys for each commentator's interpretation of Krsna's pedagogy in the Gita. To show this, my method will involve a close reading of the Sanskrit commentaries themselves, and socio-religious, intellectual and textual contextualisation. I argue that, for Samkara, Sridhara and Madhusudana, Krsna is not irrelevant or a problem, and does not need to be side-lined. Krsna's person is fundamental in different ways to his pedagogical role of rescuing Arjuna and thus to a soteriology which draws the seeker of Advaitin liberation from the world of rebirth to realisation of that which is transcendent. By demonstrating the significance of the person of Krsna for these three Advaita Vedantin commentators, this thesis provides a resource for thinking about divine embodiment and teacher-pupil relationships, and a new way of understanding the relationship between non-dualism and devotionalism in the Advaita Vedantin tradition.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Jackie Hirst (Supervisor) & Peter Oakes (Supervisor)