Vadiraja’s Refutation of Sankara’s Non-Dualism: Clearing The Way For Theism

In this volume L. Stafford Betty translates and provides commentary on a work by the sixteenth-century Hindu philosopher-theologian and poet Vadiraja. Vadiraja was a follower of Madhva, the originator of the system known as Dvaita (Dualist) Vedanta, which teaches that God is the Supreme Person and is different from His creation. Dadhva’s system clashes head-on with the redoubtable Sarikara’s Advaita (Non-dualist) Vedanta, which teaches that God is impersonal and is ultimately identical with all that is. As is today the case, in Vadiraja’s day also Sankara’s Non-dualism was regarded by the majority of India’s intellectual elite as her finest and purest presentation of the Eternal Truth enshrined in the Vedas. In this work Vadiraja passionately contests Non-dualism’s supposed supremacy and fidelity of Scripture. Combining deft analogy, often charming metaphor, and a ruthless method of reductio ad absurdum, he cuts and swipes until the imposing goliath of Non-dualism has been, to his mind, destroyed. Professor Betty has provided a concise, fairly literal translation of the text, which is written in the extremely compact style characteristic of Dualist polemics. His extensive commentary, most of it original, is perhaps the clearest guide to the tortous intricacies of Dualist-Non-dualist dialectic in any Western language. The Sanskrit text and a glossary-index are included.