[Advaita-l] Advaita Polemics Kind Attn. Sri Venkataraghavan

[Krishna Kashyap]

Namaste Rajaram Ji,
 You have raised a good point. There are 66 vadas in "shata dushani" of Sri
Vedanta Desika. I am sure it expands on the sapta vidha anupapatti pointed
out in the Sribhashya of Sri Ramanujacharya.

In fact in the preface or some introductory portion of "Shata Bhushani" of
Sri N.S. Anantha Krishna Shastri, it is said that "We are indebted to Sri
Vedanta Desika for summarizing systematically all the arguments against
Advaita in this grantha". Shata Bhushani takes up each and every vada of
Shata Dushani and presents arguments against them.

However, I am not sure everything is covered in Shata Dushani Sri Vedanta
Desika. What I have heard is Nyaya Sudha of Sri Jayathirtha is a
comprehensive work that may include in detail, all the polemical works of
Sri Madhvacharya.

a brief note on Nyaya sudha here:
Nyayasudha of Sri Jayatirtha is a detailed commentary on
Brahmasutranuvyakhyana of Sri Anandatirtha alias Sri Madhvacharya.
Anuvyakhyana is in verse like slokavartika of Kumarila. It contains 1919
verses. It is a polemical work. It deals with the major issues of Indian
Philosophy such as the validity of cognition, the nature of erroneous
cognition, the status and the procedure of verbal communication,
apauruseyatva of Vedas, the concept of Brahman, Jivas and Jagat. The
problems of Satyatva and Mithyatva, the difference and identity, the means
of liberation, the special role of bhakti and prasada and the code of
conduct to be followed for spiritual quest to lead a pious and noble life.

All these are briefly stated in Anuvyakhyana and a strong foundation of
Indian Philosophy is laid down.

Nyayasudha gives a detailed explosion of all these issues. The areas of
epistemology, ontology, ethics, and linguistics are extensively covered.
The views of all major schools of Indian philosophy are examined. Advaita
views are particularly reviewed. In a way, it is an encyclopedia of Indian
Philosophy.

Works of Sri Madhvacharya which are polemical and against Advaita are:

   - उपाधिखण्डनम् (Upadhi Khandana <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upadhi>)
   - प्रपञ्चमिथ्यात्वानुमानखण्डनम् (Prapancha Mithyatva
   <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithyatva>-anumana Khandana)
   - मायावादखण्डनम् (Mayavada Khandana)
   - and
      - तत्त्वोद्योतः (Tattvoddyota)

*Best Regards,*

*Krishna Kashyap*




On Sun, Aug 6, 2023 at 12:06 AM Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> If we leave the counter arguments and their counters out, are there any
> unique arguments other than saptavidha anupapatti? If all arguments are
> reducible to these seven classes plus or minus a few, then it is done.
> Advaitins are indebted to Sri Ramanuja for making the defence of Advaita
> from attacks by opponents easy 😉 l was going through Saiva views but they
> are hard to understand due to Tamizh poetry format.
>
> Kind regards,
> Rajaram Venkataramani
>
> On Sun, 6 Aug 2023, 07:25 Krishna Kashyap, <kkashyap2011 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> as far as I know, such a book does not exist.
>> I tried to assemble the complete arguments for just "upadesha
>> anupapatti". I had time only to look at some portions of "Shata Dushani"
>> and "Tattva MuktA kalApa" of Vedanta Desika for this and "Shata Bhushani"
>> of N.S Anantha Krishna Shastri to understand his views. I could not even
>> complete this task.
>>
>> There are about 100 pages in Sanskrit regarding just this one topic. This
>> includes 30 to 40 pages from "paramartha bhushanam" and another 20 pages
>> from "paramartha prakasika".
>> This is just the visistadvaita portion of the work.  I have no idea where
>> to find all the details from Madhva-sampradaya works.
>>
>> I heard from an Advaitin, that even serious study of "Shata Bhushani" is
>> not done among smartha samprdaya people nowadays. They focus more on
>> Advaita Siddhi rather than this work of N.S Anantha Krishna Shastri.
>>
>> I think someone can get easily 2 or 3 Phds for just this
>> saptavidha anupapatti from different points of view (trimatas).
>>
>>
>> *Best Regards,*
>>
>> *Krishna Kashyap*
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 10:14 PM Rajaram Venkataramani <
>> rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Thanks. As mentioned in my original email, this book  covers the
>>> arguments from Visishtadvaitins and Asvaita response. I was looking for a
>>> compendium that brings together in one book all the objections from
>>> Visishtadvaitins, Dwaitins, Saivas and others.
>>>
>>>
>>> https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Seven_Great_Untenables.html?id=QWcgAxQnSAwC&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Rajaram Venkataramani
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, 5 Aug 2023, 19:09 Krishna Kashyap, <kkashyap2011 at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> https://www.exoticindiaart.com/book/details/vedanta-without-maya-debate-on-saptavidha-anupapatti-nak677/
>>>>
>>>> I found this.
>>>>
>>>> *Best Regards,*
>>>>
>>>> *Krishna Kashyap*
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Tue, Aug 1, 2023 at 6:05 AM Rajaram Venkataramani via Advaita-l <
>>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Dear scholars,
>>>>>
>>>>> Is there a good compilation of arguments against Advaita by
>>>>> Bhedabhedavadins, Visishtadvaitins, Dwaitins, Saivas and others -
>>>>> anything
>>>>> other than John Grimes book on saptavidha anupapatti? Sri Subrahmanian
>>>>> suggested that Sri Venkataraghavan may have that as he is an expert in
>>>>> Advaita Siddhi. Thanks in advance.
>>>>>
>>>>> Kind regards,
>>>>> Rajaram Venkataramani
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>>>>