Part 1 - Introduction

Madhva not only wrote a Bhāṣya on the Brahma-sūtras, but also described the main points of his views regarding the purport of the Brahma-sūtras in a work called the Anuvyākhyāna. Jaya-tīrtha wrote a commentary on the Bhāṣya of Madhva, known as Tattva-prakāśikā.

Vyāsa Yati wrote another commentary on the Tattva-prakāśikā, the Tātparya-candrikā, in which he draws attention to and refutes the views of the Vedānta writers of other schools of interpretation and particularly of the Śaṅkara school^[1].

Rāghavendra Yati wrote a commentary on the Tātparya-candrikā, the Candrikā-prakāśa. Keśava Bhattāraka, a pupil of Vidyādhīśa, wrote another commentary on it, the Candrikā-vākyārtha-vivṛti, but it extends only to the first book.

Rāghavendra Yati wrote another commentary on the Tattva-prakāśikā, the Bhāva-dīpikā, in which he answered the criticisms of his opponents and explained the topics in a simpler manner.

In the present section I shall try to trace the interpretation of the Brahma-sūtras by Madhva in the light of these commentaries, noting its difference from the interpretation of Śaṅkara and his commentators. There are, of course, several other commentaries on the Brahma-sūtra-bhāṣya and its first commentaries, as also on the Anuvyākhyāna.

Thus Trivikrama Paṇditācārya wrote a commentary, the Tattva-pradīpikā, on Madhva’s Bhāṣya. Nṛsiṃha wrote a Bhāva-prakāśa and Vijayīndra Yati a Nyāyādhva-dīpikā thereon.

Again, on the Tattva-prakāśikā of Jaya-tīrtha there are at least five other commentaries, e.g.,

1. Bhāvacandrikā,
2. Tattva-prakāśikā-bhāva-bodha,
3. Tattva-prakāśikā-gata-nyāya-vivaraṇa,
4. Nyāya-mauktikā-mālā
5. and Prameya-muktāvalī by Narasiṃha, Raghūttama Yati, Vijayīndra Yati and Śrīnivāsa.

On the Tātparya-candrikā there are at least two other commentaries, by Timmanācārya and Vijayīndra Yati, called Candrikā-nyāya-vivaraṇa and Candrikādarpaṇa-nyāya-vivaraṇa.

On the Anuvyākhyāna there is the Nyāya-sudhā of Jaya-tīrtha and Sudhā of Vijayīndra Yati; and on the Nyāya-sudhā there is a number of commentaries such as that by Nārāyaṇa, Nyāya-sudhā-ṭippanī by Yadupati, Vākyārtha-candrikā by Vidyādhirāja, and the commentary by Śrīnivāsa-tīrtha^[2].

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See Helmuth von Glasenapp’s Madhva’s Philosophic des Vishṇu-Glaubens, Bonn and Leipzig, 1923, pp. 51-64.

[2]:

See Helmuth von Glasenapp’s Madhvas Philosophic des Vishṇu-Glaubens, Bonn and Leipzig, 1923, pp. 51-64.