The Tattva-Muktavali

The Tattva-Muktavali

Project Gutenberg's The Tattva-Muktavali, by Purnananda Chakravartin Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Title: The Tattva-Muktavali
Author: Purnananda Chakravartin
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7175] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on March 21, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TATTVA-MUKTAVALI ***

Originally scanned at sacred-texts.com by John B. Hare. This eBook was produced by Chetan K. Jain

THE TATTVA-MUKTAV?L?
by P?r.nananda Chakravartin

JOURNAL
OF
THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

[New Series, Volume XV]
[London, Tr��bner and Company]
[1883]
{Scanned and edited by Christopher M. Weimer, April 2002}

ART. IV.--__The Tattva-muktaval? of Gau.da-p?r.nananda-chakra- vartin__. Edited and Translated by Prof. E. B. COWELL.
The following poem was written by a native of Bengal, named P?r.nananda Chakravartin. Nothing is known as to his date; if the work were identical with the poem of the same name mentioned in the account of the Ramanuja system in Madhava's Sarvadar?anasa.mgraha, it would be, of course, older than the fourteenth century, but this is very uncertain; I should be inclined to assign it to a later date. The chief interest of the poem consists in its being a vigorous attack on the Vedanta system by a follower of the P?r.napraj?a school, which was founded by Madhva (or ?nandat?rtha) in the thirteenth century in the South of India. Some account of his system (which in many respects agrees with that of Ramanuja) is given in Wilson's "Hindu Sects;" [Footnote: Works, vol. i. pp. 139-150. See also Prof. Monier Williams, J.R.A.S. Vol. XIV. N.S. p. 304.] but the fullest account is to be found in the fifth chapter of the Sarvadar?anasa.mgraha. Both the Ramanujas and the P?r.napraj?as hold in opposition to the Vedanta [Footnote: As the different systems are arranged in the Sarva D. S. according to the irrespective relation to the Vedanta, we can easily understand why Madhava there places these two systems so low down in the scale, and only just above the atheistic schools of the Charvakas, Buddhists, and Jainas.] that individual souls are distinct from Brahman; but they differ as to the sense in which they are thus distinct. The former maintain that "unity" and "plurality" are equally true from different points of view; the latter hold that the relation between the individual soul and Brahman is that of a master and a servant, and consequently that they are absolutely separate. It need not surprise us, therefore, to see that, although Ramanuja is praised in the fifty-third sloka of this poem as "the foremost of the learned," some of his tenets are attacked in the eightieth.
The Sanskrit text of this poem was published in the Benares Pa.n.dit for Sept. 1871, by Pa.n.dit Vecharama ?arman. An edition, with a Bengali translation, was also published some years ago in Calcutta, by Jagadananda Goswamin; [Footnote: No date is given.] but the text is so full of false readings of every kind, and the translation in consequence goes so often astray, that I have not found much help from it. I have collated the text in the Benares Pa.n.dit (A.) with a MS. (B.) sent to me by my friend, Pa.n.dit Mahe?achandra Nyayaratna, the Principal of the Calcutta Sanskrit College. He has also sent me the readings in certain passages from two MSS. in the Calcutta Sanskrit College Library (C.D.); and I have to thank him for his help in explaining some obscure allusions.
The poem itself seems to me an interesting contribution to the history of Hindu philosophical controversy, [Footnote: Dr. Banerjea has quoted and translated several stanzas in his 'Dialogues on Hindu Philosophy.'] and so I have subjoined a literal English translation. I would venture to remind my readers of the words of the manager in the prologue of the Malavikagnimitra, "Every old poem is not good because it is old, nor is every modern poem to be blamed simply because it is modern."

TRANSLATION.
1. Victorious is the garland-wearing foster-son of Nanda,--the protector of his devotees,--the destroyer of the cruel king,-- dark-blue like the delicate tamala blossoms,--formidable with his many outspread rays,--mighty with all his