---
type: Reference
bundle: upanishadic-core
id: mandukya-karika
title: "Māṇḍūkya Kārikā (Gauḍapādīya Kārikā)"
description: "Gaudapada's verse commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad; earliest systematic Advaita text (ajativada)."
tradition: Advaita Vedānta
author: "Gauḍapāda (c. 6th century CE)"
language: Sanskrit
approximate_date: "c. 500–700 CE"
key_concepts_in_bundle: [turiya, avastha-traya, svapna, sushupti, ayam-atma-brahma]
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Māṇḍūkya Kārikā — माण्डूक्य कारिका

Also known as Gauḍapādīya Kārikā or Āgamaśāstra. The earliest systematic Advaita text and the commentary-treatise on the Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad by Gauḍapāda (Śaṅkara's paramaguru — teacher's teacher). Four chapters (prakaraṇas): Āgama (tradition), Vaitathya (unreality of the phenomenal world), Advaita (non-duality), and Alāta-śānti (quenching of the firebrand).

## Key Passages for Bundle Concepts

| Passage | Concept | Content |
|---------|---------|---------|
| MK 1.7–16 | Turīya | Turīya as the ground; "kevala" (alone/pure); Ajātivāda (no creation) |
| MK 1.6–8 | Svapna | Dream and waking as structurally parallel; equal epistemic status |
| MK 1.9–14 | Suṣupti | Deep sleep analysis; Prājña as Kāraṇa Śarīra |
| MK 2.1–18 | Vaitathya | The unreality of phenomenal experience (waking and dream) |

## The Ajātivāda (Non-Birth) Teaching

Gauḍapāda's most distinctive contribution: no Jīva is ever born, no world is ever created, no liberation is ever achieved — because these are all conceptual overlays on the one non-dual Brahman that never actually undergoes modification. The Māṇḍūkya Kārikā 4 (Alāta-śānti) presents this most fully. This is the most radical version of Advaita and is not the standard Śaṅkara position (which allows Vyāvahārika creation).

## Significance for Turīya

The Kārikā's treatment of Turīya (MK 1.7–16) is the basis for the OKF's central claim: Turīya is not a state. The verse *prapañcopaśama* ("the cessation of the phenomenal world's appearance") makes clear that Turīya is not something that appears alongside the other three states; it is the recognition that the "four" were never four.

## Recommended Editions

- Nikhilananda translation (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center)
- Karmarkar edition (Pune — scholarly Sanskrit edition)
- Swami Gambhīrānanda (Advaita Ashrama — with Śaṅkara's commentary)
