Dueling Dramas, Dueling Doxographies: The Prabodhacandrodaya and Saṃkalpasūryodaya

Abstract

This article focuses on two of the best-known Sanskrit allegorical dramas: the Prabodhacandrodaya of Kṛṣṇamiśra (eleventh century) and the Saṃkalpasūryodaya of Vedānta Deśika (1268–1369). I discuss how the plays offer competing interpretations not only of Vedānta, but of the relationship between Vedānta and non-Vedāntic traditions. The Prabodhacandrodaya is perhaps the earliest text to articulate an inclusivist vision of Vedānta as the culminating tradition within a pan-Vedic (and arguably pan-‘Hindu’) alliance of philosophical schools and devotional sects. The Saṃkalpasūryodaya upholds an unapologetic exclusivism, rejecting the worship of gods other than Viṣṇu and portraying philosophical schools such as Sāṃkhya and Vaiśeṣika as fighting on the same side as Buddhism and Jainism. I explore the reasons for these doxographical differences, drawing attention to the Prabodhacandrodaya’s status as the first work of Vedānta to be composed for a royal audience, and I suggest that the widespread influence of Advaita Vedānta in later centuries is traceable in part to its willingness to adopt the kind of inclusivism championed in Kṛṣṇamiśra’s play.

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