New member introduction: shrI Gerald Penn

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

I thought I had replied to Jaldhar's recent question re: the advaita works
of the grammarian Bhattoji Dikshita on the list, but found that it had
gone as a private email instead. Anyway, here is updated information, from
the Advaita website -

bhaTTojI dIkshita, the great grammarian, was a disciple of appayya
dIkshita. bhaTTojI's brother, rangojI bhaTTa, wrote advaita works such as
advaitacintAmaNi and attacked the dvaita school of AnandatIrtha in his
madhva-siddhAnta-bhanjanI. bhaTTojI wrote advaitakaustubha, a dIpana on
nRsimhASrama's tattvaviveka, and the madhvamata-vidhvamsana against
dvaita. rangoji's grandson, lakshmInRsimha, wrote the well-known Abhoga
commentary in the bhAmatI line.

nRsimhASrama was a guru of appayya dIkshita, so he was the grand-preceptor
of bhaTToji. He is not as well known as his contemporary, madhusUdana
sarasvatI, but he deserves eqyal recognition. His bhedadhikkAra is a
monumental work in the history of the tradition.

Vidyasankar