Yajnavalkya or Yagyavlkya was a
Hindu Vedic sage. He is mentioned in the Upanishads, and likely lived in the
Videha region of ancient India, approximately between the 8th century BCE, and
the 7th century BCE. Yajnavalkya is considered one of the earliest philosophers
in recorded history. Yajnavalkya proposes and debates metaphysical questions
about the nature of existence, consciousness and impermanence, and expounds the
epistemic doctrine of neti neti
("not this, not this") to discover the universal Self and Atman. His
ideas for renunciation of worldly attachments have been important to Hindu sanyasa traditions.
Yajnavalkya is credited for
coining the Advaita (non-dualism,
monism), another important tradition within Hinduism. Texts attributed to him,
include the Yajnavalkya Smriti, Yoga Yajnavalkya and some texts of the
Vedanta school. He is also mentioned in various Brahmanas and Aranyakas.
He welcomed participation of women
in Vedic studies, and Hindu texts contain his dialogues with two women
philosophers, Gargi Vachaknavi and Maitreyi.
History
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, a
set of dialogues suggest Yajnavalkya has two wives, one Maitreyi who challenges
Yajnavalkya with philosophical questions like a scholarly wife; the other
Katyayani who is silent but mentioned as a housewife. His name Yajnavalkya is
derived from yajna which connotes ritual.
Texts
Yajnavalkya is associated with several other major ancient texts in Sanskrit, namely the Shukla Yajurveda, the Shatapatha Brahmana, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Dharmasastra named Yajnavalkya Smrti, Vriddha Yajnavalkya, and Brihad Yajnavalkya. He is also mentioned in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, as well as in ancient Jainism texts such as the Isibhasiyaim.