not unfrequently deserves to be called brilliant even. And in addition
to all this it shows evident traces of being not the mere outcome of
Râmânuja's individual views, but of resting on an old and weighty
tradition.

This latter point is clearly of the greatest importance. If it could be
demonstrated or even rendered probable only that the oldest bhâshya
which we possess, i.e. the /S/a@nkara-bhâshya, represents an
uninterrupted and uniform tradition bridging over the interval between
Bâdarâya/n/a, the reputed author of the Sûtras, and /S/a@nkara; and if,
on the other hand, it could be shown that the more modern bhâshyas are
not supported by old tradition, but are nothing more than bold attempts
of clever sectarians to force an old work of generally recognised
authority into the service of their individual tenets; there would
certainly be no reason for us to raise the question whether the later
bhâshyas can help us in making out the true meaning of the Sûtras. All
we should have to do in that case would be to accept /S/a@nkara's
interpretations as they stand, or at the utmost to attempt to make out,
if at all possible, by a careful comparison of /S/a@nkara's bhâshya with
the text of the Sûtras, whether the former in all cases faithfully
represents the purport of the latter.

In the most recent book of note which at all enters into the question as
to how far we have to accept /S/a@nkara as a guide to the right
understanding of the Sûtras (Mr. A. Gough's Philosophy of the
Upanishads) the view is maintained (pp. 239 ff.) that /S/a@nkara is the
generally recognised expositor of true Vedânta doctrine, that that
doctrine was handed down by an unbroken series of teachers intervening
between him and the Sûtrakâra, and that there existed from the beginning
only one Vedânta doctrine, agreeing in all essential points with the