Vadiraja's Refutation of Sankara's Non-Dualism: Clearing the Way for Theism

by L. Stafford Betty

In this volume L. Stafford Betty translates and provides commentary on a work by the sixteenth–century Hindu Philosopher–theologian and poet Vadiraja. Vadiraja was a follower of Madhva, the originator of the system known as Dvaita ( Dualist) Vedanta , which teaches that God is the Supreme Person and is different from. His creation, Madhva’s system clashes head-on, with the redoubtable Sankara’s Advaita (Non-dualist). Vedanta, which teaches that God is impersonal and is ultimately identical with all that is. As is today the case, in Vadiraja day also, Sankara’s Non dualism was regarded by the majority of India's intellectual elite as His finest and purest presentation of the Eternal Truth enshrined in the Vedas. In this work Vadiraja passionately contest Non-dualism’s supposed supremacy and fidelity to Scripture. Combining deft analogy, often charming metaphor, and a ruthless method of reductio ad absurdum, he cuts and swipes until the imposing Goliath of Non-dualism has been, to his mind, destroyed. 

 

L. Stafford Betty is a professor of Religious studies at California State University, Bakersfield. He has published articles on various aspects of Eastern Philosophy in Religious Studies (Cambridge University), International Philosophical Quarterly, Philosophy East and West, and the Journal of Chinese Philosophy.