| This dissertation studies the Br&dotbelow;hadaran&dotbelow;yaka Upanis&dotbelow;ad Bhas&dotbelow;ya (c.8th century, henceforth BUBh) of the well-known Hindu commentator and theologian San˙kara. The BUBh, although a less known text than the Brahma Su&barbelow;tra Bhas&dotbelow;ya, is the richest and most profound of San˙kara's commentaries on the Upanis&dotbelow;ads and an important statement of his non-dualistic theology. Specifically, I deal with the relationship between that theology and its rhetoric, by casting light on the internal working of the commentarial text itself, rather than surveying the works of the author in fragments for his ideas, and by focusing on how the author writes rather than what he writes. 1 maintain that the rhetorical study of the BUBh not only opens our eyes to the beauty of the author's compositional style, which has been buried under the study of the author's philosophy, but also provides insights into the shaping of that philosophy. Close study of several extended passages of the commentary and their interconnections reveal that the BUBh is not a commentary based on mere annotation in which the commentator's ideas haphazardly enter in, but a carefully written text with a gradually unfolding compositional architecture, in which the commentator employs a variety of exegetical and rhetorical strategies to develop and construct his theological and philosophical arguments, in a pedagogically strategic way. |
