A Survey of Post Sankara Advaita Vedanta (An Old and Rare Book)

Email

Whatsapp

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter

Copy link

The theme of the preset work, a survey of post Sankara Advaita Vedanta is a very wide one and hence the enquiry has been restricted to the salient features of Advaita; for example, the problems regarding the Jiva and his relation with Brahman, the nature of Avidya, the nature of the world, etc. it has been divided into six chapters. The first chapter takes up a bird's eye view of Pre-Sankara Advaita and also contains the philosophy of Sankaracarya in brief as developed out of Gaudapada's work. The Second chapter is devoted to earlier Advaita as dealt with by the immediate pupils of Sankaracarya and Vacaspati and a short not on the three vadas (Adhasa, Avaccheda, the Pratibimba) is added here to show the development of Advaita. Chapter III takes stock of the Advaitins of 9th to 14th centuries, a period which saw further enrichment and original addition of Advaita. Chapter IV summarises the later advaita comprising 14th to 18th centuries which was, so to say, a sort of stagnation period. In all these chapters only important authorities in Advaita have been dealt with and the rest are reserved for Chapter V, wherein the first part contains a short description of some more big names in Advaita while the second consists of a list of all the last Chapter rounds off the work with a connected survey of the whole work.

Dr. Rabindra Kumar Panda, the editor of the present work is working at present as a lecturer in the Department of Sanskrit, Pali & Prakrit, Faculty of Arts, M. S. University of Baroda, Gujrat. He has studied Sanskrit in both traditional as well as modern methods. He has received the degress – Sastri., 1982. Sadashiva Kendriya Sanskrit College, Acharya, 1984 and Visistacharya, 1986 Sri Jagannatha Sanskrit University, Puri Orissa with first class distinction securing Gold Medals, Prizes and Merit Scholarships. He is awarded Ph.D. in 1993 by the M.S University of Baroda as a U.G.C. N.E.T qualified candidate. He is engaged in active research in his specialised fields like Navya Nyaya and regularly contributing his research Papers to esteemed journals of Indology. As a creative writer in Sanskrit he also contributes poems, stories and articles in Sanskrit to various Sanskrit Journals.

Advaita – theory is an expression of mind's journey of ever to the unknown. It flowers on potentials of profoundness touching the frontier stirrings of inner self and encompasses the unique and unconditional existence of pure consciousness termed as Brahman, the Supreme-self.

Self realization at the highest plane speaks of Avait's standpoint in which the inner realm finds itself as the outer – self inscrutably strewn within.

To this effect, the work "Asurvey of Post – Sankara Advaita Vedanta" of late Dr. (Miss) S. A. Nachane is a good price of research to provide systematic development of theories, concepts and crises that have built the history of Advaita Philosophy. It is nice of things that Dr. R. K. Panda has taken keen interest to bring the work to limelight with great care and enthusiasm.

It is gratifying that the book serves as a compendium of Advaita doctrines. It is good on account of its faithful presentation and lucidity. I hope this work will receive the attention of learned critics and scholars.

I congratulate Dr. Panda for such a scholastic endeavour.

The thesis has been prepared under the guidance of Prof. R.D. Kamarakar, Director of Research Department, Bhandarkar Orienal Research Institute, Poona 4.

The theme of the thesis, "A Survey of Post – Sankara Advaita Vedanta" is a very wide one and hence the enquiry has been restricted to the silent features of Advaita; for example, the problems regarding the Jiva and his relation with Brahman, the nature of Avidya, the nature of the world, etc. it has been divided into six chapters. The first chapter takes up a bird's eye-view of Pre-Sankaracarya Advaita and also contains the Philosophyof Sankaracarya in brief as developed out of Gaudapada's work. The Second chapter is devoted to earlier Advaita as dealt with by the immediate pupils of Sankaracarya and Vacaspati and a short note on the three Vadas (Abhasa, Avaccheda, and Pratibimba) is added here to, to show the development of Advaita. Chapter III, takes stock of the advaitins of 9th to 14th centuries, a which saw further enrichment and original addition of Advaita Chapter IV, summarises the later Advaita comprising 14th to 18th centuries, which was, so to say, a sort of stagnation period. In all these chapters only important authorities in Advaita have been dealt with and the rest are reserved for Chapter V, wherein the first part contains a short description of some more big names in Advaita while the second consists of a list of all the minor Advaitins with their works. The last Chapter rounds off work with a connected survey of the whole work.

It was first proposed, to divide the work in two parts the first depicting the whole Advaita in general and the second dealing with Nrsimha-Srama's work is not included here, as on later thought, it was found unnecessary to increase the bulk of the thesis, there being not much novelty or originality in this work.