A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s1.30.2

c19.s1.30.2

Mandana Miśra, whom we have already mentioned as a contemporary of Śankara, held different views on Advaita which he expressed in Brahmasiddhi. Sarvajñātman was the next great Advaita author; he flourished in Travancore at the end of the tenth century. His authoritative Samkshepa-śārīraka, with its fine literary flavour, is his chief work, but he also wrote Pañcaprakriyā and Pramāna-Lakshana. This last work, on epistemology, is accepted by Mīmāmsakas as well as Vedāntins. Jñānaghana's Tattavaśuddhi is another treatise of about the same time; its author finds mention in the Śringeri list of pontiffs. Jñānottama, who commented on Sureśvara's Naishkarmyasiddhi, is the author of two independent works—Nyāyasudhā and Jñānasiddhi—and his more celebrated pupil, Chitsukha of Simhāchalam (c. 1200), deserves notice next. Chitsukha's Bhāshya-bhāva-prakāśikā is a highly esteemed commentary on Śankara's Bhāshya on the Brahma-sūtras; among his other works the best known is an independent treatise on Advaita, Tattvapradīpikā. He had pupils like Sukhaprakāśa who also became writers of repute. Amalānanda, a pupil of Sukhaprakāśa, lived near Nasik on the banks of the Godāvari in the reigns of the Yādava kings Krishna and Mahādeva (1246-71); his Vedānta-kalpataru is an extensive commentary on Vāchaspati Miśra's Bhāmatī, itself a commentary on Śankara's Brahmasūtra-bhāshya; and the Śāstradarpana is a more concise statement of the doctrines of the Bhāmatī school. Śankarānanda (c.