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from the Greek literature. But the Indian writers have not mentioned the date of their composition in any of their works. Hence it is not possible to determine exactly when these Sutras were composed. But the general impression is that Badarayana, who is no other than Vyasa, lived about 3101 B. C., i.e., the beginning of the Kali age.
These Sutras, as already stated, are short and cryptic statements.They can be interpreted in any way as the commentators liked. Hence they had a number of commentators, namely, Sri Sankara, Ramanuja, Purnaprjna, Bhaskara, Nimbarka, Vallabha and others. Each of these commentators interpreted the Sutras in his own way different from the others. At times, a Sutra was split into two by certain commentators or some of the Sutras are missing in certain commentaries.
Sri Ramanuja, has contributed nine works in Sanskrit on the Visistadvaita philosophy. None of his Tamil works is available so far. The Sanskrit works are (1) Vedantasara, (2) Vedantadipa, (3) Sri-Bhasya (4) Gitabhasya, (5) Vedarthasamgraha, (6) Saranagatigadya, (7) Vaikunthagadya, (8) Sri-rangagadya and (9) Nityagrantha. Of these, the Sri Bhasya is an elaborate commentary on the Brahmasutras of Badarayana. Vedantasara is a very concise commentary on the same and Vedantadipa is a commentary in between these two.
In the introduction to his Vedantadipa Sri Ramanuja summarises the teachings of Vedanta to the following effect: Of the three ultimate entities known to philosophy, the intelligent individual soul is essentially different from the non-intelligent matter and the Supreme Brahman. The essential differences thus existing between matter, soul and the Brahman, are intrinsic and natural. God, who is the same
