ADVAITA-L Digest - 15 Jun 1999 to 16 Jun 1999 (#1999-54)

[Giridhar]

>  1) Buddhism borrowed from mahAbhArata and the upanishads, or
>  2) viceversa
>
> If we accept 2) it would mean the mahAbhArata and the upanishads
> were influenced by Buddhism. Accepting 1) would mean the opposite.


Tibetan sources dated around 700 AD like tattva sangraha
quote directly from mandukya upanishad and karika stating
that 'this is upanishhad teaching'.

Not sure about 2, but certainly there are almost verbatim passages
in the mandukya karika from Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka-karika like passage
7.34 of Madhyamaka-karika and 2.31 of mandukya karika.

Please refer to Natalia Isayeva book for further  references.

But I would not say that mahabharata and the upanishads themselves
were influenced by Buddhism, rather that the commentaries on upanishads
had to analyze the philosophies of Buddhism.