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-MUKTAVÂLÎ
by Pûr.nânanda Chakravartin

JOURNAL
OF
THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

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

ART. IV.--__The Tattva-muktavâlî of Gau.da-pûr.nânanda-chakra-
vartin__. Edited and Translated by Prof. E. B. COWELL.
The following poem was written by a native of Bengal, named
Pûr.nânanda 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 Râmânuja system in Mâdhava's Sarvadaršanasa.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
Vedânta system by a follower of the Pûr.naprajña school, which was
founded by Madhva (or Ânandatîrtha) in the thirteenth century in the
South of India. Some account of his system (which in many respects
agrees with that of Râmânuja) 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 Sarvadaršanasa.mgraha. Both the Râmânujas
and the Pûr.naprajñas hold in opposition to the Vedânta [Footnote: As
the different systems are arranged in the Sarva D. S. according to the
irrespective relation to the Vedânta, we can easily understand why
Mâdhava there places these two systems so low down in the scale, and
only just above the atheistic schools of the Chârvâkas, 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 Râmânuja 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 Vechârâma Šarman. An edition, with a Bengali
translation, was also published some years ago in Calcutta, by
Jagadânanda Goswâmin; [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 Mahešachandra Nyâyaratna, 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
Mâlavikâgnimitra, "Every old poem is not good because it is old, nor is
every modern poem to be blamed simply because it is