A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s3.t3: (c) Other Commentators
A History of Sanskrit Literature c33.s3.t3
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(c) Other Commentators
c33.s3.t3.1
No other comment can be compared in importance with those of Çaṅkara and Rāmānuja, the former representing the most sustained intellectual effort of Indian thought, the latter presenting a theory of the world which has many similarities to popular Christian belief, and which may through the Nestorians actually have been affected by Christian thought. Nimbārka, who is reputed a pupil of Rāmānuja, wrote a *Vedāntapārijātasaurabha*, commenting on the Sūtra and a *Siddhāntaratna* in ten Çlokas summing up his system. Viṣṇusvāmin, in the thirteenth century, developed a new aspect of theory which was used by Vallabha (1376-1430) when he wrote his *Aṇubhāṣya*² on the Sūtra and propounded a doctrine of Bhakti in which the teacher on earth is regarded as divine and receives divine honours. More distinctive is the dualism of Madhva³ or Ānandatīrtha, who commented on seven of the important Upaniṣads, the *Bhagavadgītā*, the *Brahma Sūtra*, and the *Bhāgavata Purāṇa*, while a number of independent tracts, including the *Tattvasaṁkhyāna*,⁴ set out his principles briefly. What he insists on is the existence of five fundamental dualisms, Dvaita, whence his system derives its name, as opposed to the Advaita of Çaṅkara and the Viçiṣṭādvaita, qualified nondualism or the nonduality of that which is qualified, of Rāmānuja. A summary of the views of Rāmānuja, Viṣṇusvāmin, Nimbārka, and Madhva is given in the *Sakalācāryamatasaṁgraha*⁵ of Çrīnivāsa.
c33.s3.t3.2
² Ed. *BI.* 1888-97.
c33.s3.t3.3
³ Date perhaps 1197-1276; but cf. *EI.* vi. 260 (1238-1317). His works are ed. Kumbhakonam, 1911.
c33.s3.t3.4
⁴ Ed. and trans. H. von Glasenapp, *Festschrift Kuhn*, pp. 326 ff.; *Madhva's Philosophie* (1923).
c33.s3.t3.5
⁵ See R. Otto, *Visnu-Nārāyana*, pp. 57 ff.
Linked texts (2)
- Siddhāntaratna — Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa 1695, Sanskrit
- Tattvasaṅkhyāna — Madhva, Sanskrit