The Tattva-Muktavali

The Tattva-Muktavali

The following poem was written by a native of Bengal, named Pr.nnanda Chakravartin. Nothing is known as to his date; if the work were identical with the poem of the same name mentioned in the account of the Rmnuja system in Mdhava's Sarvadaranasa.mgraha, it would be, of course, older than the fourteenth century, but this is very uncertain; I should be inclined to assign it to a later date. The chief interest of the poem consists in its being a vigorous attack on the Vednta system by a follower of the Pr.napraja school, which was founded by Madhva (or nandatrtha) in the thirteenth century in the South of India. Some account of his system (which in many respects agrees with that of Rmnuja) is given in Wilson's "Hindu Sects;" [Footnote: Works, vol. i. pp. 139-150. See also Prof. Monier Williams, J.R.A.S. Vol. XIV. N.S. p. 304.] but the fullest account is to be found in the fifth chapter of the Sarvadaranasa.mgraha. Both the Rmnujas and the Pr.naprajas hold in opposition to the Vednta [Footnote: As the different systems are arranged in the Sarva D. S. according to the irrespective relation to the Vednta, we can easily understand why Mdhava there places these two systems so low down in the scale, and only just above the atheistic schools of the Chrvkas, Buddhists, and Jainas.] that individual souls are distinct from Brahman; but they differ as to the sense in which they are thus distinct. The former maintain that "unity" and "plurality" are equally true from different points of view; the latter hold that the relation between the individual soul and Brahman is that of a master and a servant, and consequently that they are absolutely separate. It need not surprise us, therefore, to see that, although Rmnuja is praised in the fifty-third sloka of this poem as "the foremost of the learned," some of his tenets are attacked in the eightieth. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 7175
Author: Gaudapurnanandacakravarti, active 17th century
Release Date: Dec 1, 2004
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Cowell, Edward B. (Edward Byles), 1826-1903