vivartavada

Vivartavāda, or vivartavāda, is a doctrinal position in Indian philosophy, most closely associated with Advaita Vedanta, concerning how the phenomenal world arises from Brahman. The term vivarta means appearance or an apparent transformation. According to this view, Brahman remains essentially unchanged, while the world manifests as a seeming transformation through maya and ignorance.

The core idea is that the diversity of the universe is not a real modification of Brahman. Instead, it is an appearance produced by superimposition (adhyasa) on the one undivided reality. In other words, the many become visible to experiential awareness, but there is no actual, ontological alteration of Brahman’s nature.

Vivartavāda is often contrasted with parinama-vāda, the theory of real transformation. Parinama-vāda holds that Brahman does undergo genuine modification to produce the world. Advaita Vedanta uses vivartavāda to preserve the nondual insight that Brahman alone is real, while still accounting for the ordinary experience of multiplicity through illusion and superimposition.

In scholarly discussions, vivartavāda is invoked to explain how Maya veils the true nature of reality and how knowledge of Brahman can dispel ignorance, revealing the world as dependent on misperception rather than as independently real. The doctrine has been debated within the tradition, with various commentators mapping its implications for sadhana, ethics, and scriptural interpretation.