Shankara's unique attitude of praise and censure of his opponents

[V Subrahmanian]

In the prasthana traya bhashya we see Shankara taking up the criticism of various non-Vedantic schools.  While carefully reading such discourses, we can notice a unique feature: para matam apratishiddham anumatam bhavati (what is non-contradictory in other systems with respect to Vedanta, is admissible to us, the Vedantins). Closely related to this is Shankara acknowledging the good even in the opponents and offering praise. Censure of those very schools/proponents can be properly gauged only when we take note of those instances too.  A few examples are given in the file below:

https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/shankaras-unique-attitude5e.5e.pdf

warm regards

subbu