The date of Yoga-vasistha

The date of Yoga-Vasistha is still an open question as no critical edition of Yoga-Vasistha is available. Ignoring the orthodox view actributing prophetic vision to ancient sages as is done by old writers like K. Narayanswami, we find the following divergent views among modern scholars:

1. B.L. Atreya,
2. S.N. Dasgupta,
3. P.C. Divanji,
4. S.P. Bhattacharya,
5. V. Raghavan,
6. T.G. Mainkar,
7. J.N. Farquhar.

AD. 500-650 (After Kalidasa but before Gaudapada and Bhartrhari).
700-800 A.D.
925-975+A.D.
1000-1200 A.D.
1100-1250 A.D.
1200 A.D.
1300-1400 AD.

We should disregard the view of J.N. Farquhar as he was not aware that the great philosopher-saint of Maharashtra, Jnanadeva (A.D. 1275-1296), owes a great deal to Yoga-Vasistha, as can be seen from his works Amrtanubhava and Jnanesvari.

B.L. Atreya bases his argument on the silence or non-mention of the name of Gaudapada and Sankara in the Yoga-Vasistha. But they too do not mention Yoga-Vasistha or its author. V. Raghavan shows a number of parallel passages between Yoga-Vasistha, Banta, Bhatta Narayana, Mandana (all of the 7th Cent. A.D.), Anandavardhana (884 AD.) and Rajasekhara (920 AD.) and opines that Yoga-Vasistha is the borrower. B.L. Atreya’s argument based on non- mention of authorship is not tenable. Sankara however, mentions philosophic works of Vasistha in his commentary on Br. S. iii. 4.50, Svetasvatara 1.8. Sanatsujatiya 1-15 & 31 and quotes two verses from ‘Vasi4he Yogasastre’ indicating the existence of some philosophic work of Vasistha before him. But the evidence is too meagre to justify the existence of the present Yoga-Vasistha before Sankara. In fact the evidence produced by Dr. V. Raghavan and by Mainkar clearly shows that the present Yoga-Vasistha is later than Sankara.

S.N. Dasgupta is apparently right when he says,

“For, if a summary of it (i.e. of Yoga-Vasistha) was written by Gauda Abhinanda of the ninth century A.D. the Yoga Vasistha must have been written at least in the eighth century.”

P.C. Divanji presumes that in case of parallelisms of ideas or expressions between Yoga-Vasistha and an earlier work like an Upanishad or BC, Yoga-Vasistha is the borrower. He shows that apart from differences from Sankara in philosophical problems, Yoga-Vasistha ridicules Sankara’s view expressed in Vivekachudamani 29, indicating that Yoga-Vasistha is later than Sankara.

But ‘post-Sankara’ may mean pre-Abhinanda as Sankara is now located in the early part of 8th century if not in the last quarter of the 7th cent. AD.2 P.C. Divanji however points out the confusion between two Abhinandas, but accepts the nucleus of Yoga-Vasistha to be earlier than Sanksepa-Sariraka of Sarvajnatman (850-900 A.D.). Divanji’s layer theory based on the pairs of interlocutors in Yoga-Vasistha is unproved, but his view regarding the home of fl’, viz. Kashmir based on various references to the history and topography of Kashmir is convincing.

To S.P. Bhattacharya goes the credit of pointing out the Buddhistic and Trika (Kashmira Saiva) elements in Yoga-Vasistha.3 But to locate the Yoga-Vasistha on that account in 10th to 12th century is unwarranted. We know that though the so called founder of Trika system, Vasugupta, belonged to the first quarter of the 9th century, the 64 Agamas on which Trika was based are much older and the Kashmir is worshipped Siva even before the days of Moka, as can be seen from jiva’s shrine on the so called Sankaracarya hill near Srinagar. And as pointed out by A. Stein in the Introduction to Rajatarangini, Kashmir is had evolved a sort of Bauddha Saiva creed by their tolerance.

To Dr. V. Raghavan goes the credit for showing the textual influence of the Kashmiri version of BC and the NW version of Ramayana on Yoga-Vasistha. He tries to show that Yoga-Vasistha is the borrower from authors like Bhartrhari (A.D. 651), Kumarila (A.D. 660), Abhinanda (900 A.D.), and Rajasekhara (A.D. 920). That means the final form was given to Yoga-Vasistha in the 11th century and the mention of the invasion of Karnata kings on East India (A.D. 1023) confirms this.’ But Raghavan’s conclusion regarding the later limit of the present text of Yoga-Vasistha, viz. “the middle of the 13th century” needs modification in view of the existence of Yoga-Vasistha tradition in Maharashtra before Jnanadeva (1275-1296 A.D.). Dr. Raghavan in a way accepts this by locating a quotation from Yoga-Vasistha in Suktimuktavali (A.D. 1258). T.G. Mainkar accepts Dr. Raghavan’s conclusions.

“We know that Agamas and epics are ‘revised’ as we find it from the critical editions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But we shall be off the mark if we brand the whole of Yoga-Vasistha as having been composed in a particular century. There must have been a treatise called Yogavasistha before the 9th century as Abhinanda of Cashmir had composed its digest (Laghu Yoga Vasistha) in the 9th century AD. It is difficult to reconstruct that text on the basis of Abhinanda’s work. The original Vedantic work teaching Upanisadic Absolutism is now unreconstructable. The second stage which included the Buddha in the Brahmanical Pantheon and absorbed the Buddhist Idealism is also very difficult to separate. But that stage must be much earlier than the 9th century. For Trika Saivism dominated Kashmir at least from the 9th century when Vasugupta ‘discovered’ Sivasutras and gave an impetus to Agamic Saivism that was current in Kashmir.

The present form of this epic with Upanisadic basis, Buddhistic and Trika influences and emphasis on Jnana-Karma-Samuccaya as the way to Moksa may be tentatively located in the 1100-1200 centuries A.D.