Nydyasudha of Sri Jayatirtha, vol. 2.

• Author: Gerow, Edwin
• Position: Review

Nydyasudha of Sri Jayatirtha, vol. 2. Translated by B. N. K. SHARMA. Basavanagudi: VISVA MADHVA MAHAPARISAT, 2000. Pp. xvii + 316. Rs 150, $20 (paper).

The indefatigable and seemingly indestructible B. N. K. Sharma (b. 1909), doyen of today's Dvaita Vedanta scholars, here continues his monumental exposition of Jayatirtha's magnum opus--itself an extended commentary on Madhva's Anuvyakhyana (which is often considered Madhva's magnum opus). The present volume brings the first adhyaya to completion, so we may infer that we have approximately one-fourth of the total work before us. (The first volume [lacking, in my edition, a title page] is said here [p. xiii] to have been published by the Raghavendra Ashram in Bangalore in 1995.)

Sharma's work is not a translation in any usual sense: it is rather a thoroughly informed (formed from the inside) paraphrase--a bhasya that purports both to clarify Jayatirtha's thought and offers Sharma's assessment of Jayatirtha's place in the panoply of Dvaita thinkers. It is thus (as those familiar with Sharma's other works will not be surprised to learn) a sustained and often...