When were the Brahmasutras Written?

This post summarises the state of current knowledge on the dating of the Brahmasutras. They are based on Nakamura (1983) and Uskokov (2022).

 These and other works point out the following conclusions:

• Brahmasutras were written between 200 to 450 CE
• Brahmasutras as they exist today were not written by a single person. The latter parts were added somewhere between 400 to 450 CE.

Our understanding of Brahamasutras has been augmented in the recent past by a scholar of immense repute- Nakamura. Nakamura's works cited here have been written originally in Japanese and translated into English. Chapter X of Nakamura’s work, History Of EarlyVedanta Philosophy: Part One (1983) discusses this. Some interesting conclusions are worth noting here. Brahmasutras was composed by the Vedanta school of philosophy, particularly the school that “revered” Chandogya Upanishad:

• Extensive interpretations and explanations from Chandogya Upanishads (p. 430).
• Even Shankara’s commentary quotes Chandogya Upanishads often (p. 431).
• But Brahmasutras pick from other Upanishads such as the Taittriya Upanishad (p. 431).
• Originally, the Brahmasutras were intended to “synthesize, harmonize and unify the thought” of all the Upanishads but remains true to the Chandogya Upanishad. (p. 431).
• Later additions in Brahmasutra reflected other Upanishadic theories.

On the dating, Nakamura argued that the later portions of the Brahmasutra which attack the Buddhist theory of consciousness must have been additions after 400 CE. The Brahmasutra, according to him, would have passed through 3 stages:

• Stage 1: Composed in schools of Sama Veda whose attention centred on the Chandogya Upanishads.
• Stage 2: Upanishadic theories were addressed and the Brahmasutras were enlarged.
• Stage 3: Additions of the logical refutation of other schools made and the Sutras were unified.

Nakamura cautiond that “we cannot absolutely conclude” of this stagewise evolution (p. 433), though. Also, Nakamura states that the Brahmasutras could have been regarded as a secret work, given that it was not addressed in the Buddhist canon.

Based on the dates of Vasubandhu (320 to 400 CE) and Nagarjuna (who lived earlier), Nakamura pegged the earliest possible date of the present compilation of the Brahmasutras to 400 CE. The latest possible date is 400 to 450 CE, given that there were several commentaries of the Brahmasutras, according to him (p. 436). Nakamura clarified that given that the Brahmasutras went through the three stage evolution, the earlier versions would have been written much earlier, prior to even the Christian era.

Uskokov in the work titled "The Philosophy of the Brahma-Sutra" (2022) seems to agree with Nakamura’s dating. He concludes: “Be that as  it may, the Brahma-sūtra could not have been finalized much later than the fifth century because we know for a fact that several prominent Vedāntins wrote commentaries on it before the eighth century Śaṅkara”  (p. 6) Uskokov also pegged Shankara’s commentary on the Brahmasutras at 750 CE (p. xiv).

So, to conclude, the current state of knowledge dates the Brahmasutras as they exist now, to the 5th century CE, specifically, between 400 to 450 CE.