Topics Covered:
- Indian culture will cover the salient aspects of Art Forms, Literature and Architecture from ancient to modern times.
Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman’ Awards
What to study?
For Prelims and Mains: About Maharshi Badrayan, contributions and awards, what is Vedanta philosophy?
Context: President Awards the Certificate of Honour and Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman for the Year 2019.
About ‘Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman’ Awards:
The Maharshi Badrayan Vyas Samman distinction is conferred on persons in recognition of their substantial contribution in the field of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Classical Oriya, Classical Kannada, Classical Telugu and Classical Malayalam.
Introduced in the year 2002.
Eligibility: Given to selected young scholars in the age group of 30 to 45 years.
Carries a certificate of honour, a memento and a one-time cash prize of Rs.1 lakh.
Who was Maharshi Badrayan?
- He was an Indian philosopher about whom almost no personal details are reliably known.
- Badarayana is regarded as having written the basic text of the Vedanta system, the Vedāntasūtrak.a. Brahmasūtra.
- He is thus considered the founder of the Vedānta system of philosophy.
- The date of Badarayana and his Brahma Sutras is uncertain. Different scholars have dated the Brahma Sutras variously from 500 BCE to 450 BCE.
Brahma Sutras:
The text systematizes and summarizes the philosophical and spiritual ideas in the Upanishads. It is one of the foundational texts of the Vedānta school of Hindu philosophy.
What is contains?
The Brahma sutras consists of 555 aphoristic verses (sutras) in four chapters. These verses are primarily about the nature of human existence and universe, and ideas about the metaphysical concept of Ultimate Reality called Brahman.
- The first chapter discusses the metaphysics of Absolute Reality.
- The second chapter reviews and addresses the objections raised by the ideas of competing orthodox schools of Hindu philosophies as well as heterodox schools such as Buddhism and Jainism.
- The third chapter discusses epistemology and path to gaining spiritually liberating knowledge.
- The last chapter states why such a knowledge is an important human need.
