History of the Dvaita School of Vedanta and its Literature

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From the Jacket

This book was first published from Pune in 1961 in two volumes and received the highest national literary award of the Central Sahitya Academy in 1963. A revised enlarged single volume edition was brought out in 1981 by Motilal Banarsidass. The present is the second revised and enlarged edition. The passage of time and the coming to light of fresh information and materials have necessitated some amount of corrections, revisions and deletions which have been shifted to a separate place at the end as a matter of expediency for the present.

Eight more Appendices, some discussing standing issues like the alleged Christian influence on some of the spiritual order (Parampara), the maintainability of the report of Caitanya's visit to Udupi and the adverse remarks said to have been made by Caitanya on the place of Karma and Jnana in M's. system on the occasion, the influence of M's. GB on Jnanesvari etc. have been added. 

The reader is enabled to see how the genius of the founder has dived deep into the recesses of the Vedic and Upanisadic heritage ending with the Puranas and restored to posterity a robust system of Vedantic Theism in which the three eternal verities of the Supreme Being and the world of matter and souls receive their legitimate place of honour. 

About the Author

Born on 9th June, 1909 in a family of Asthana Vidvans of the former Cochin State of Kerala Dr. B.N.K. Sharma combines in himself a solid background of traditional Sastric learning with the highest attainments in modern University Education.

Vicissitudes of fortune have taken him from Tamil Nadu to far off Punjab and Karnataka and finally landed him in Maharashtra in 1953 where he was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit in the newly founded Ruparel Collage of the Modern Education Society of Pune in 1953. After his retirement in 1969, Dr. Sharma was on a U.G.C. tenure of five years on a massive research project on the Brahmasutras and Their Principal Commentaries of the three leading schools of Vedanta. This standard research work was published by the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai, between 1971-78 in three large volumes. Subsequently, a re-print edition of the same has bee brought out by Munshiram Manoharlal of Delhi (1986). This work has been hailed as an event in Vedantic Scholarship. Dr. Sharma's "Madhva's Teachings in His Own Words" sponsored by the Bhavans has now gone into its 4th edition.

Dr. Sharma is the recipient of the President of India's Award for Eminent Sanskrit Scholars in 1992 and the Government of Maharashtra's Award for Sanskrit (1993) and the prestigious Sri Vidyamanya Prasasti of the Purnaprajna Pratisthana in 1996. He has also been honored by the Late Periaval of the Kanchi Mutt and several Madhva Pithadhipatis.

Today with over a dozen publications of outstanding merit in lucid English, Dr. Sharma has verily established the highest record of the present century in his chose field with his latest English rendering of the Samanvayadhyaya of Jayatirtha's Nyayasudha.

Contents:

Foreword

Abbreviations

Preface to the Reprint Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

Preface to the First Edition

PART I

EVOLUTION OF DVAITA THOUGHT

Chapter I The Concept of "Dvaita" and Its Significance
Chapter II Mantras, Brahmanas and Aranyakas
Chapter III Early Upanisads
Chapter IV Later Upanisads and Svetasvatara
Chapter V Post-Svetasvatara Thought-Ferment : Ekayana, Khila and Other Expatiatory Literature
Chapter VI Post-Vedic Period : Epics, Puranas, Pancaratras and Gita
Chapter VII The Dawn of Schism and Heretical Schools
Chapter VIII Brahma Sutras
Chapter IX Early Commentators on the Sutras, Recrudescence of Buddhism, Hindu Revival, The Rise of the Advaita Vedanta and Early Theistic reactions to It
Chapter X Decline of Mayavada. Theistic Reaction of Ramanuja and the Need for a New Darsana

PART II

THE CREATIVE PERIOD OF MADHVA AND HIS IMMEDIATE DISCIPLES

Chapter XI Date, Life and Works of Madhva
Chapter XII Gita and Sutra-Prasthana
Chapter XIII Purana Prasthana
Chapter XIV Dasa Prakaranas
Chapter XV Upanisad-Bhasyas and Rg Bhasya
Chapter XVI Poems Stotras and Miscellaneous Works of Madhva
Chapter XVII Emergence of the Astamathas of Udipi and Other Mutts. Tables of Mutts
Chapter XVIII Taulava Disciples, Their Lives and Works
Chapter XIX Pracina Tikakaras

PART III

STANDARDIZATION OF DVAITA THOUGHT UNDER JAYATIRTHA

Chapter XX Place of Jayatirtha in Dvaita Thought
Chapter XXI Life and Works of Jayatirtha (1365-88)
Chapter XXII Jayatirtha's Dialectics

PART IV

AGE OF NEO-DIALECTICISM IN DVAITA-VEDANTA

Chapter XXIII Sad-Darsanivallabha Visnudasacarya
Chapter XXIV Dialectics of Vadaratnavali
Chapter XXV Life of Vyasatirtha (1478-1539)
Chapter XXVI Works of Vyasatirtha
Chapter XXVII Glimpses of Vyasatirtha's Polemical Review of the Brahma-Sutra Interpretations of Samkara, Ramanuja and Madhva
Chapter XXVIII The Place of Vyasatirtha in the Dvaita System
Chapter XXIX Vyasatirtha's Dialectics
Chapter XXX Dialectic Sequel tot he Nyayamrta

PART V

THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES AND REINFORCEMENT OF SIDDHANTA

Chapter XXXI Vijayindra Tirtha (1514-95)
Chapter XXXII Vadiraja Tirtha
Chapter XXXIII Narayanacarya (C. 1600-1660)
Chapter XXXIV Satyanatha Yati (1648-1674)
Chapter XXXV Gauda Purnananda Cakravartin (circa 17th cent.)

PART VI

NON-POLEMICAL LITERATURE

Chapter XXXVI Major Commentators
Chapter XXXVII Minor Commentators

PART VII

TERRITORIAL EXPANSION OF THE DVAITA SCHOOL THROUGH SOCIAL, RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY PROPAGANDA

Chapter XXXVIII Reformatory and Devotional Movement of the Haridasakuta. Its History and Literature
Chapter XXXIX Influence of Madhva thought on Bengal Vaisnavism
Chapter XL Expansion of Madhva Sampradaya in Maharashtra and among the Gauda-Sarasvatas and Other Communities in Various Parts of India

PART VIII

MODERN PERIOD

Chapter XLI Transitional Literature of XIX Century and After
Chapter XLII New Literature in English and Other Modern Languages
Chapter XLIII Retrospect and Prospect

APPENDICES

Appendix I List of Works Cited by Madhvacarya
Appendix II The Sri Kurman Iscription of Narahari Tirtha
Appendix III Insufficiently Known and Undatable Authors and Anonymous Works in Davita Literature
Appendix IV The Kasi and the Gokarna Mathas
Appendix V Baladeva's Govinda-Bhasya and the concept of 'Acintyabhedabheda'
Appendix VI A New Controversial Work of Vyasatirtha
Appendix VII The Birth-place of Purandara Dasa
Appendix VIII The Gokarna-Partagali Jivottama Matha-A Historical Sketch
Appendix IX Krsnadevarayakrtih by Krsnadevaraya
Appendix X Alleged Influence of Christianity on Madhva-A Baseless Assumption
Appendix XI Infoluence of Sri Madhvacarya on the Jnanesvari
Appendix XII Pre-Madhva Sanaka-Sampradaya Guruparampara of Madhva does not Belong to the Direct Disciplic Line of Sankara
Appendix XIII Vaisnava Studies
Appendix XIV Sesa-Ramacandracarya's Prakriya-Kaumudi (Face Page 576)
Appendix XV (To be read on page 578 between lines 12 and 13)
Appendix XVI A Surviving Madhva-Sampradaya Matha in Madhya Pradesh
Appendix XVII A Vernacular (Tulu) Poem of Vadiraja Tirtha (Face Page 431)
Appendix XVIII Vijayindra-Vijaya-Kavya of Madhvakavi (Face Page 397)
Appendix XIX Nyayacandrika of Vidyasagara Anandapurna and Jaya Tirtha's Nyayasudha
Appendix XX The Problem of Non-extant Source Books Cited by Madhva

Bibliography

Index

Supplemental Index

Addenda and Corrigenda