Vedanta Atlas
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Glossary

Short definitions and orientation. For how the commentators actually treat an idea, follow a term into Concepts.

Reading the text

  • Adhikaraṇa

    A topical unit of sūtras

    A run of sūtras treated as one discussion, from question to settled conclusion. The traditions divide these units differently. In this Atlas, Rāmānuja’s edition names its adhikaraṇas; the Śaṅkara and Madhva editions do not.

  • Adhyāya

    A book of the text

    A book of the Brahma Sūtras. There are four, each divided into four pādas.

  • Bhāṣya

    A commentary

    The sustained interpretation of a root text, unfolding what its compressed statements mean. In this tradition a bhāṣya is an argument for a reading of the whole text, not a neutral footnote.

  • Exposition

    The explanatory voice

    A passage that unpacks a word, supplies context, or walks through what the sūtra says, without being a move in a debate.

  • Opponent’s view

    A rival tenet noted in passing

    A brief naming and dismissal of a rival tradition’s tenet, without the full development of a pūrvapakṣa.

  • Pāda

    A quarter of an adhyāya

    The text’s second-level division. An address like sūtra 2.3.15 means adhyāya 2, pāda 3, fifteenth sūtra.

  • Prasthāna-trayī

    The triple canon

    The three foundational texts of Vedānta: the Upaniṣads, the Bhagavad Gītā, and the Brahma Sūtras. Each major school’s founding teacher commented on all three.

  • Pūrvapakṣa

    A position under consideration

    A position the commentator sets out in order to examine it: an objection, a rival reading, or an argument being tested. It can sound like the author’s own voice. Do not assume it is his final position; the settled conclusion is marked siddhānta.

  • Siddhānta

    The commentator’s own conclusion

    The settled position the commentator affirms at this point in the argument, usually after opposing positions have been examined. It is this commentator’s conclusion, here; at the same sūtra, another tradition may reach a different one.

  • Smṛti

    "That which is remembered"

    Texts of human authorship, such as the epics. Honored and constantly quoted, but formally subordinate to śruti. The Bhagavad Gītā is formally smṛti.

  • Śruti

    "That which is heard"

    The Vedic corpus, including the Upaniṣads, regarded by the tradition as revealed rather than humanly authored. The final court of appeal in Vedānta argument.

  • Sūtra

    A compressed aphorism

    A single, highly compressed aphorism; the Sanskrit word literally means "thread". Sūtra texts were built to be memorized and to be unpacked by a teacher or a commentary.

  • Upaniṣad

    The Vedas’ contemplative conclusion

    The contemplative teachings that close each Vedic corpus: the texts the Brahma Sūtras systematize and these commentaries cite constantly. See the Upaniṣad guide for every one this corpus cites.

  • Veda

    The root scriptures

    Literally "knowledge": the four collections (Ṛg, Sāma, Yajur, Atharva) at the root of the Hindu scriptural tradition.

  • Vedānta

    "The end of the Veda"

    The Upaniṣads’ place at the close of the Vedic corpus and, for the tradition, its culminating teaching. Also the family of schools built on reading those texts as one coherent whole.

Philosophical vocabulary

These terms carry each tradition’s own reviewed meaning, and some are defined differently by different traditions, so no single definition is given here. Each entry leads to the commentaries themselves.