Bhagavatpada’s Authorship of Prapanchasara : reply to certain objections

[V Subrahmanian]

Shri Natraj Maneshinde's post:

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Bhagavatpada’s Authorship of Prapanchasara : reply to certain objections
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In our Advaita sampradaya, it is a well known fact that Bhagavatpada has composed/compiled an Agamik text called Prapanchasara tantra which is an authoritative text in the world of Mantra-shastra.  The text has a tika called ‘Vivaranam’ authored by Bhagavatpada’s direct disciple Shri Padmapadacharya. In the tika, Padmapadacharya ji says that Bhagavatpada was tormented to see the sufferings of the common people and hence composed this work for their benefit.  
The text has been acknowledged as Bhagavatpada’s composition by Shri Amalananda Saraswati ji, Madhavacharya ji, Madhava Mantri ji, Raghava Bhatt ji and all the commentators of Prapanchasara. Raghava Bhatta ji even quotes the ‘Vivaranam’ in numerous places of his work and also attributes it to Padmapadacharya.
Even in the light of such strong testimonies, there are a few men who still cast doubts on Bhagavatpada’s authorship. Few of the objections they make are as follows :
1. Even traditional Advaitian scholars are suspicious on Bhagavatpada’s authorship of Prapanchasara
2. Prapanchasara is purely a tantrik work. Hence, it is unlikely that Bhagavatpada might have written it.
3. It is particularly antagonistic to the spirit of Vedanta.
4. Bhagavatpada has denounced the Tantrika approach in Geeta-bhashya 9.25 and 17.4 where he considers the worship of Vinayaka, Saptamatrika-s etc as Tamasic. Hence, he certainly cannot compose a tantra related work.
5. Prapanchasara Tantra has not been taken as seriously as the Prasthana-traya-bhashya in the traditional circles while understanding the purport of the Bhashya and is ignored most of the times.
I don’t quite agree with these objections. Based on my limited knowledge, I have evaluated these statements in the document shared below and tried to demonstrate that they have got no merit in refuting the authorship of Bhagavatpada.
The document can be accessed from the following link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WRIc3Eb_EAliGn6NkkelJq9KpHT_RKiC/view?usp=sharing

It is my earnest request to the fellows Advaitians to please go through the evidences compiled in the shared document.
॥ भव शङ्कर देशिक मे शरणम् ॥