Dvaita, Advaita and Visistadvaita are the principal schools of Vedanta, presenting the widest possible points of departure of philosophical thought emerging from the interpretation of the Prasthanatrayi, or the triune authority of the Vedanta, in the medieval period of Indian history. Though chronologically the last and having perhaps fewer followers than the other two, the Dvaita system has been the chief rival in thought to the Advaita of Samkara, in the history of Indian philosophy. This is the first complete and systematic work on the origin and development of this important school of Vedanta to appear in print, which received the highest national literary award of the Central Sahitya Academi in 1963. The work deals primarily with the history of the Dvaita school and its entire literature and only indirectly with its philosophical tenets as embodied in it. It is intended to meet the requirements of the general reader as well as of the advanced scholar and the specialist in the field. It is addressed not merely to the followers of Madhva, but to all those genuinely interested in having authentic information about the origin and development of the great Vedanti School of Madhva and its profound contributions to the perennial problems of philosophy as such. No efforts have been spared to make the work readable, interesting, authentic and informative.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR B.N.K. Sharma
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 College 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 been 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 Puranaprajna Pratisthana in 1996. He has also been honoured 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 chosen field with his latest English rendering of the Samanvayadhyaya of Jayatirtha’s Nyayasudha. (In the Press)
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