[Advaita-l] darshanas - older and later

[Aditya Kumar]

Vishishtadvaita has it's roots in Pancharatra school of Vaishnava agama. Madhwa's Dwaita school borrows and relies heavily on the Neo-Nyaya school which is NOT one of the classical schools i.e., Nyaya-Vaisheshika. Both Buddhist Logic and Neo-Nyaya (Navya Nyaya) is evolved from the Nyaya school. So in a way, Madhwa's school is more similar to Buddhism than Advaita. 
The common factor between the two is that both are not based on pure Vedic origins, both were rebel/revolt cults. Ramanujacharya revolted against the 'Brahmin hegemony' in Sanatana Dharma. Instead of completely antagonising the Brahminical ritualism like the Buddha, he instead patronised it by converting non-brahmins into Brahmin fold. We can notice such similar trend now as well where white Europeans have acquired the rights to chant all sorts of Mantras. Madhwacharya did the same thing by converting many non-hindus to hindus. Both the Acharyas held a supremacist attitude concerning the ultimate god to the extent that they almost deride other gods. Something very similar to Abrahamic cults. 
Essentially, they are non-Vedic schools/systems within the Vedic fold. Adi Shankara's school is based solely on Shruti/Upanishads. The modern school of Advaita also called Neo-Advaita is based on more simplistic non-duality and does not rely much on any particular philosophy as such.