The Concept of Liberation While Still Alive In The Philosophy of Madhva

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From the Jacket Forthcoming publication of the same author:

Madhva's Quotes from the Puranas and the Mahabharata An Analytical Compilation of Untraceable Source-quotations in Madhva's works along with Translation and Footnotes (in German).

Vienna 2007 (Publications of the De Nobili Research Library, Vol. XXXIV)

ROQUE MESQUITA.

Retired Professor of Indian Philosophy at the Institute for South Asian. Tibetan and Buddhist Studies - Department of South Asian Studies. University of Vienna (AUSTRIA)

PREFACE This paper is based on materials I collected in the beginning of the nineties in connection with my research into the concept of jivanmukti. Since then two papers have been published: one on the concept of liberation in the philosophy of Kumarila(Mesquita 1994) and the other on the concept of apavarga according to Sridhara (Mesquita 1995).for the latter paper, I am indebted in a special way to Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Halbfass, visiting Professor at our Department of Indology in summer 1994, who went through my paper and made many valuable suggestions. I had the honour to make his acquaintance not only as a brilliant scholar, but also as a true friend. It is therefore, a great satisfaction for me to contribute to the Commemoration volume of Wilhelm Halbfass with a paper dedicated to the same topic as put forward by Madhva. The paper referred to here was original published in German under the title: Die Idee der Erlosung bei Lebzeiten im System Madhva in: Kairn Preisendanz (ed.), Expanding and Merging Horizons: contributions to South Asian and cross-Cultural Studies in Commemoration of Wilhelm Halbfass (Vienna: Austrian Academy of Science 2007 : pp. 433-454). I am great-ful to the original publisher Austrian Academy of Science for permission to print this paper in English version in India. The present translation contains slight change and minor additions.

My sincere thank of Prof. Dr. George Chemparathy, Emeritus Professor of India philosophy at the University of Utrecht, for his Useful remark and improvement to the English expression of this paper. My special thanks are due also to Christian Ferstl, Student of Indian philosophy at the Department of South Asian Studies at the University of Vienna, for his technical help in the electronic data processing and for preparing the camera-ready copy of the present booklet.

Back of the book Some excepts from book-reviews

"Mesquita's work represents a first attempt at the examining the authenticity of Madhva's citations by taking into consideration the literary and theological framework in which they appear… This is a fascinating study, deserving of much attention, specially from scholars in India." (Billeting of the School of Oriental and African Studies Vol. [1998]: 408-409).

"Mesquita's careful examination of Madhva's works has shown the way in which Madhva proceeded in creating his source. His work is an important contribution to the study of Madhva which has been rather neglected in Western scholarship." (Indo-Iranian journal Vol. 42 [1999]: 63-64).

"More recently, the most important studies of Madhva's works that appeared outside India are again in German, by Roque Mesquita: Madhva und seine unbekannten literarischen Quellen. Einige Beobachtungen (Vienna1997); now also available in an English translation as Madhva's unknown Literary Source: Some Observation ( New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, 2000) and his superb translation and study of one of Madhva's most important works, Madhva: Visnutattvanirnaya (Vienna, 2000)." (philosophy East & West Vol. 56, No. 4 [2006]: 665).