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Source: thThe Hindu

(http://www.hinduonnet.com/br/2002/05/28/stories/2002052800120300.htm)

 

Research papers in philosophy

 

 

 

 

 

MY LATEST FOUR RESEARCH PAPERS: Dr. B.N.K. Sharma; published by the author, 4/2,

Shah Building, Bhagat Road, Mumbai-400016. Rs. 50.

 

THE AUTHOR of the book under review, a Madhwa scholar, has published four of his

recent research articles, which have a two-fold method of presenting Dwaita

philosophy and criticising the untenability of rival schools of thought.

 

In his view, "Madhwa's mission in life was .... primarily connected with setting

right the anomalies of the Vaidikadarsanas and restoring Vedantadarsana to its

rightful place as a robust Theistic Philosophy...."

 

Hence it is quite natural that all the four articles are centred around in

highlighting the theistic trends in the Vedanta tradition by setting aside

absolutistic, nihilistic and idealistic perspectives of Vedanta philosophy in

general.

 

Dwaita philosophy arose as a sequel to Advaita Vedanta and to further emphasise

and promote the path of devotion based on philosophical elucidations. The

dualistic trend has been consistently maintained throughout the interpretation

of the Prasthana Traya as well as the original writings of Sri Madhwacharya.

 

While establishing the dualistic philosophy, he was necessitated to counter the

non-dualisitc philosophy of Sankara. Even the latest writings on the Dwaita

Vedanta echo this trend and the author unexceptionally proceeds to present the

doctrines of the Dwaita system in the same way.

 

The first article deals with the unknown source books of Madhwa. The author

answers Prof. Mesquita's contention that Brahma Tarka was a bogus work authored

by Madhwa himself and passed off as an ancient authority. The entire article

centres around the response to this attack.

 

But it is unfair on the part of the author to use abbreviations without giving

the expansions for them either in brackets or in a list separately. For

instance, the abbreviations such as Mbh, TN, B.T., up. Kh., B, A. V.,V.T.N.,

B.S.B., B.S., S, P.R. Literature, G.T., M, R, M. Vin. Tg, and A. Siddhi are used

frequently and this will certainly confuse the readers who are not familiar with

them. This usage reduces the tempo of the arguments launched by the author.

 

The second article is concerned with the validity of memory. Here too the author

rebuts the contention of Prof. Zydenbos, who maintains that the Dwaita view of

the validity of memory is largely indebted to the Jain theory. As Purvapaksha

view, he repudiates this idea and as Siddhanta, he tries to establish the

validity of memory from the Dwaita point of view.

 

The third article is devoted to the interpretation of the Vedanta Sutras in the

context of the Arsha tradition of Madhwa, which "provides the key to integrating

the seeming polytheism of the Pantheon with an overall conception of one

Sarvanamavan."

 

Frequently the author emphasises this view. Since Sankara's commentaries were in

the line of historical personages confining to the Upanishads alone, the

forgotten Arsha tradition was revived by Madhwa.

 

The fourth article is an approbation of Madhwa's writings for maintaining

decorum and discipline in the use of controversial language against the style of

writing by Madhusudana and Brahmananda who, according to the author, freely

indulge in invective rhetoric, discourtesy, derision and abusive language.

 

This book suffers from the absence of an index. Ironically the author himself

laments that the edition of Maheswaran Nair's Nyayamrta suffers from want of a

perspective index.

 

But except giving a list of his own books, the author has not provided a subject

index to this small book. As an appendix, the discussion on the date of Madhwa

has been included. Scholars of Vedantic schools may further ponder over the

contents of this book.

 

 

R. GOPALAKRISHNAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

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