Advaita Vedanta

===Early Advaita Vedānta===
Two Advaita writings predating Maṇḍana Miśra and Shankara were known to scholars such as Nakamura in the first half of 20th-century, namely the ''Vākyapadīya'', written by [[Bhartṛhari]] (second half 5th century{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=426}}), and the ''Māndūkya-kārikā'' written by [[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]] (7th century).{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=3}} Later scholarship added the [[Sannyasa Upanishads]] (first centuries CE{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|p=10}}) to the earliest known corpus, some of which are of a sectarian nature,{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp=3–4}} and have a strong Advaita Vedānta outlook.{{sfn|Olivelle|1992|pp=17–18}}<ref>Stephen H Phillips (1995), Classical Indian Metaphysics, Columbia University Press, {{ISBN|978-0812692983}}, p. 332 with note 68</ref><ref>Antonio Rigopoulos (1998), Dattatreya: The Immortal Guru, Yogin, and Avatara, State University of New York Press, {{ISBN|978-0791436967}}, pp. 62–63</ref>

According to Nakamura, "there must have been an enormous number of other writings turned out in this period [between the Brahma Sutras and Shankara], but unfortunately all of them have been scattered or lost and have not come down to us today".{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=3}} In his commentaries, Shankara mentions 99 different predecessors of his Sampradaya.{{sfn|Roodurmun|2002|p={{page needed|date=February 2022}}}} In the beginning of his commentary on the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad Shankara salutes the teachers of the Brahmavidya Sampradaya.<ref group=web>{{Cite web |url=http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/pre-sankara.html |title=advaita-deanta.org, ''Advaita Vedanta before Sankaracarya'' |access-date=25 January 2013 |archive-date=3 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180303094318/http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/avhp/pre-sankara.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Pre-Shankara doctrines and sayings can be traced in the works of the later schools, which does give insight into the development of early Vedānta philosophy.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=3}}

==== Gauḍapāda and ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'' ====
{{Main|Gaudapada}}

According to tradition, Gauḍapāda (6th century){{sfn|Raju|1992|p=177}} was the teacher of [[Govinda Bhagavatpada]] and the grandteacher of Shankara. Gauḍapāda wrote or compiled{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=308}} the ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'', also known as the ''{{IAST|Gauḍapāda Kārikā}}'' or the ''{{IAST|Āgama Śāstra}}''.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=280}} The ''{{IAST|Māṇḍukya Kārikā}}'' is a commentary in verse form on the ''[[Mandukya Upanishad|Māṇḍūkya Upanishad]]'', one of the shortest [[Upanishads]] consisting of just 13 prose sentences. Of the ancient literature related to Advaita Vedānta, the oldest surviving complete text is the ''Māṇḍukya Kārikā''.{{sfn|Sarma|1997|p=239}} The ''Māṇḍūkya Upanishad'' was considered to be a [[Śruti]] before the era of Adi Shankara, but not treated as particularly important.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=280}} In later post-Shankara period its value became far more important, and regarded as expressing the essence of the Upanishad philosophy. The entire ''Karika'' became a key text for the Advaita school in this later era.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|pp=280–281}}{{refn|group=note|Nakamura notes that there are contradictions in doctrine between the four chapters.{{sfn|Nakamura|2004|p=308}}}}

Gaudapada took over the Yogachara teaching of ''[[Yogacara#Representation-only|vijñapti-mātra]]'', "representation-only," which states that the empirical reality that we experience is a fabrication of the mind, experienced by consciousness-an-sich,{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177}}{{refn|group=note|It is often used interchangeably with the term ''citta-mātra'', but they have different meanings. The standard translation of both terms is "consciousness-only" or "mind-only." Several modern researchers object this translation, and the accompanying label of "absolute idealism" or "idealistic monism".{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=1}} A better translation for ''vijñapti-mātra'' is ''representation-only''.{{sfn|Kochumuttom|1999|p=5}}}} and the four-cornered negation, which negates any positive predicates of 'the Absolute'.{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177}}{{Sfn|Sarma|2007|pp=126, 143-144}}{{refn|group=note|1. Something is. 2. It is not. 3. It both is and is not. 4. It neither is nor is not.{{sfn|Garfield|Priest|2003}}{{page needed|date=August 2016}} The 'four-cornered negation' is an English gloss of the Sanskrit, [[Catuṣkoṭi|Chatushkoti]].{{citation needed|date=August 2016}}}} Gaudapada "wove [both doctrines] into the philosophy of ''Mandukaya Upanisad'', which was further developed by Shankara".{{sfn|Raju|1971|p=177-178}}{{refn|group=note|The influence of [[Mahayana Buddhism]] on other religions and philosophies was not limited to Vedanta. Kalupahana notes that the [[Visuddhimagga]] – a Theravada Buddhist tradition, contains "some metaphysical speculations, such as those of the Sarvastivadins, the Sautrantikas, and even the [[Yogacara|Yogacarins]]".{{sfn|Kalupahana|1994|p=206}}}} In this view,
{{blockquote|the ultimate ontological reality is the pure consciousness, which is bereft of attributes and intentionality. The world of duality is nothing but a vibration of the mind (manodṛśya or manaspandita). The pluralistic world is imagined by the mind (saṁkalpa) and this false projection is sponsored by the illusory factor called māyā.<ref group=web name=iepgauda>[http://www.iep.utm.edu/gauḍapad/ Gaudapada] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200615104440/https://www.iep.utm.edu/gau%e1%b8%8dapad/ |date=15 June 2020 }}, Devanathan Jagannathan, University of Toronto, IEP</ref>}}

[[Gaudapada|Gauḍapāda]] uses the concepts of [[Ajativada|Ajātivāda]] to explain that 'the Absolute' is not subject to [[Saṃsāra|birth, change and death]]. The Absolute is ''aja'', the unborn eternal.{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}} The [[Empiricism|empirical world]] of [[phenomenon|appearances]] is considered [[Maya (illusion)|unreal]], and not [[Philosophical realism|absolutely existent]].{{sfn|Sarma|1996|p=127}}