Skip to main content

Overview of the Advaita-Dvaita Debate Literature

Madhusudana Sarawati’s Advaita Siddhi is a polemical work - a reply to Vyasatirtha’s Nyaya-amrita who belonged to Dvaita School of Vedanta. Both works show a high level of dialectical skill and take advantage of advancement in study of logic due to Navya-Nyaya School.

Madhusudana Saraswati also wrote Advaita-ratna-rakshanam a polemical work in reply to both Dvaitins and Nyaya philosopher specially Shankara Mishra’s Bhedaratna.

The Advaita - Dvaita debate does not end with Advaita Siddhi. Ramacharya wrote Nyaya-amrita-tarangini criticizing Advaita Siddhi. Nyaya-amrita-kantakoddhara of Anandbhattaraka was another counter-attack on Advaita Siddhi.

Madhusudnana’s disciple Balabhadra wrote a commentary on Advaita Siddhi called simply Vyakhya. Like Vijayandra-tirtha’s commentary Amoda on Nyaya-amrita it is not a reply to any other polemical work.

Brahmananda’s Guruchandrika was a reply to Tarangini and Kantakoddhara. Gauda Brahmananda was a very famous logician and in Advaita tradition it is famous that Advaita tradition begins with Gauda (Gaudapada) and ends with Gauda (Gauda Brahmananda). The abridged version of Guruchandrika is called Laghuchandrika. In the 19th Century Panchpagesha Shastri commented on this work - it is called Bhavapraksha which has another commentary on it called Tippana by V.Subramaniya Shastri. Brahmananda’s Nyayaratnavali is a commentary on Madhusudana’s Siddhanta Bindu.

From Dvaita’s side Vanamali Mishra wrote two polemical works in reply to Brahmananda - Nyaya-amrita-tarangini-saurabha and nyaya-amrita-saugandhya. From Advaita’s side Vitthalesha’s commentary on Guruchandrika is considered the final work after which the debate ended - in whose favor is debatable. But according to a modern dvaitin - R Nagaraja Sharma - in his book - Reign Of Realism In Indian Philosophy Vitthalesha’s work consists of no reply to Vanamali Mishra. However in 20th century a famous advaitin N.S. Anantakrishna Shastri did write a work to criticize Vanamali Mishra in his Saugandhya Vimarsha.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SCHOOLS OF INDIAN THOUGHT – PART 1 – RAMANUJA’S VISHISTHADVAITA VEDANTA

  SCHOOLS OF INDIAN THOUGHT – PART 1 – RAMANUJA’S VISHISTHADVAITA VEDANTA APRITHAKSIDDHI : The central concept of VisishtAdvaita Philosophy is that Brahman alone is organically related to the soul (chit) and matter (achit) and is the ultimate reality. Chit and Achit are absolutely different and yet inseparable from Brahman. Though these two entities draw their very existence from Brahman. Brahman is independent of them just as the soul is independent from the body but remains the inner controller of both chit and achit. This relationship of inseparability is called Aprithaksiddhi. Empirically we find that a substance and an attribute though different yet are related to each other inseparably. Take for example a blue jar. The jar is different from the colour blue but both are referred to in the judgment, “This is a blue jar”. Perception reveals them to be identical but yet they cannot be identical, for jar is certainly different from the blue colour and not all jars are blue nor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ramanuja and Nimbarka

  The primary question for any Vedanta philosophy is what is the relation between Brahman and the world and Brahman and the individual souls. Nimbarka takes this relation to be one of identity and difference. He gives the analogy of a coiled snake and of sun and its rays. Brahman is both immanent and transcendent; the souls and matter are really just the different manifest states of the one Brahman. The concern with such a philosophy is to show that the immanence of Brahman does not compromise its unity and the impurities that accrue to the soul and matter do not thereby affect Brahman. Ramanuja believes that this is not possible in the Bheda-Abheda system (his criticisms of Bhaskara would with certain modifications apply also to Nimbarka). The reason is identity and difference cannot be affirmed simultaneously of the same object. Identity is an absolute relation or in the logical terminology of Nyaya it is a locus pervading relation. In terms of Modern Logic identity is a reflexiv...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tattva in Indian Philosophy

  Reality or Tattva is an abstract noun formed by adding the inflection –ness to the demonstrative ‘that’ which we use to point out to something. So that-ness means something that is capable of being referred to as a that or in other words something that has a certain character or svabhava. Nagarjuna believes that svabhava is really a prajnapti sat or merely a conventional existent like say a chariot, the chariot is neither in the parts nor a whole apart from the parts nor a configuration of the parts, it is merely a name. Depending on certain factors or collocations something is conferred with a name and mind takes it to be an independent existing reality. So there are then two ways to refer to reality, one from an ordinary standpoint where the name has a practical significance in worldly transactions. The sage does not upset conventional truths. Another standpoint is the transcendental standpoint where reality is referred to as essentially ni-svabhava, taking it to have a svabhav...
Post a Comment
Read more