Fundamentals of Visistadvaita Vedanta

About The Author:

S. M. Srinivasa Chari (b. 1919, Mysore) has a brilliant academic record. He is an M. A. in Philosophy of the University of Mysore and recipient of Ph.D. from the University of Madras. He is a finished Sanskrit scholar trained up by eminent traditional teachers. He was a research Scholar at the University of Madras and a Fellow of Institute of Philosophy at Amalner in Maharashtra.

Dr. Chari joined the Ministry of Education, Government of India, after the completion of his university career. He retired in 1976 as Joint Educational Adviser.

Dr. Chari has traveled widely. He has participated in international conferences abroad, and addressed learned assemblies at University Centres on aspects of Indian philosophy and religion. He is author of Advaita and Visistadvaita and Vaisnavism

Foreword
Visistadvaita is one of the great religio-philosophical systems of the world. There are very few modern critical expositions of it based on the bhasya, supplement by later erudite works.

Dr. Srinivasa Chari has acquired quite a profound knowledge of Visistadvaita from great pundits with whom he studied for years the texts in original. His modern education has endowed him with the capacity to present classical ideas in a lucid and connected way.

Depending on the original texts, in particular on Vedanta Desika's Tattva-mukta-kalapa, Dr. Chari has written an excellent monograph which authoritatively expounds Visistadvaita. Moreover, it attempts to establish that this a system of philosophy in conformity with logic and experience.

From the Jacket:

The doctrine of Visistadvaita, expounded by Ramanuja, was developed into a sound system of philosophy by the most brilliant of his successors, Venkatanatha, 'popularly known as Vedanta Desika.' His chief contribution to the intellectual foundation of the system lay in the composition of the text of Tattva-mukta-kalapa, a treatise of significant philosophical import left for posterity.

In this volume, which is a study of Visistadvaita based on Tattva-mukta-kalapa, the line of arguments advanced by Vedanta Desika is closely followed. The major and important issues related to the philosophy of Visistadvaita are brought within the purview of discussion. The contemporary rival schools represented by Carvakas, Buddhists and Jainas, Nayaya-Vaisesikas, Mimamsakas and the Advaitins, of both orthodox and unorthodox camps, are successfully encountered. In the textual light of Tattva-mukta-kalapa, the notion that Visistadvaita is a theological system is dispelled, and its philosophic core is established beyond doubt.

The author maintains 'the original orthodox style, so characteristic of the ancient Acaryas', in his delineation of topics; yet the exposition remains free from all kinds of scholastic trappings.

The volume is a definitive study of Visistadvaita doctrine, both in their 'philosophical as well as theological aspects'. Its in-depth probe of 'the fundamental epistemological and philosophical issues…common to all schools' both I the East and the West makes its appeal to those interested 'in understanding the basic problems of philosophy'