of /S/a@nkara's comments with the text of Bâdarâya/n/a's Sûtras, but
will rather endeavour to show on speculative grounds that /S/a@nkara's
philosophical view is the only true one, whence it of course follows
that it accurately represents the meaning of Bâdarâya/n/a, who himself
must necessarily be assured to have taught the true doctrine. But on the
modern investigator, who neither can consider himself bound by the
authority of a name however great, nor is likely to look to any Indian
system of thought for the satisfaction of his speculative wants, it is
clearly incumbent not to acquiesce from the outset in the
interpretations given of the Vedânta-sûtras--and the Upanishads--by
/S/a@nkara and his school, but to submit them, as far as that can be
done, to a critical investigation.

This is a task which would have to be undertaken even if /S/a@nkara's
views as to the true meaning of the Sûtras and Upanishads had never been
called into doubt on Indian soil, although in that case it could perhaps
hardly be entered upon with much hope of success; but it becomes much
more urgent, and at the same time more feasible, when we meet in India
itself with systems claiming to be Vedântic and based on interpretations
of the Sûtras and Upanishads more or less differing from those of
/S/a@nkara. The claims of those systems to be in the possession of the
right understanding of the fundamental authorities of the Vedânta must
at any rate be examined, even if we should finally be compelled to
reject them.

It appears that already at a very early period the Vedânta-sûtras had
come to be looked upon as an authoritative work, not to be neglected by
any who wished to affiliate their own doctrines to the Veda. At present,
at any rate, there are very few Hindu sects not interested in showing
that their distinctive tenets are countenanced by Bâdarâya/n/a's