[Advaita-l] Madhusudana Saraswati and other random thoughts

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

To the gentlemen in threads relating to the geography and history of Sri Madhusudana Saraswati:
 
Consider that from the earliest known times to today, it is the Shankaracharya of Puri who is closely
associated with and consulted at the Jagannatha temple in Puri. Given the worldwide spectacles of
Rath Yatras organized by ISKCON and all the legends associating caitanya mahAprabhu with Puri,
one does not need to emphasize how entrenched gauDiya vaishNavism is there.
 
Consider also that narahari tIrtha, one of the direct disciples of madhvAcarya, is historically well
documented to have ruled as a regent in Orissa when the then Gajapati ruler died very young. The
connection of Orissa and south Bengal with the mAdhva variety of vaishNavism is therefore as old
as the dvaita vedAnta sampradAya itself.
 
Finally, consider that an author who writes multiple books need not work in sequence, waiting to
finish one completely before starting another. It is equally or even more probable that a writer may
work on multiple projects in parallel, beginning and ending each at very different times in his life.
 
So, all the heat about whether Madhusudana Saraswati wrote one text before or after another may
well be quite unnecessary. Also, it is not necessary to think that because he specifically challenged
dvaita tenets in his advaita siddhi, he may have been a south Indian!
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar