Existence and Perception in Medieval Vedanta

This book focuses on discussions of metaphysics and epistemology in early modern India found in the works of the South Indian philosopher Vyasatirtha (1460–1539). Vyasatirtha was pivotal to the ascendancy of the Madhva tradition to intellectual and political influence in the Vijayanagara Empire.

This book is primarily a philosophical reconstruction based on original translations of relevant parts of Vyasatirtha’s Sanskrit philosophical text, the “Nectar of Logic” (Nyayamr?ta). Vyasatirtha wrote the Nyayamr?ta as a vindication of his tradition’s theistic world view against the Advaita tradition of Vedanta. In the centuries after it was written, the Nyayamr?ta came to dominate philosophical discussions among Vedanta traditions in India.

The Advaitins argued for an anti-realist stance about the empirical world, according to which the world of our experience is simply an illusion that can be dispelled by a deep study of the Upani?ads. This book reconstructs the parts of the Nyayamr?ta where Vyasatirtha argues in favor of the reality of the world against the Advaitins. Philosophically, it focuses on the concept of existence in Vyasatirtha’s metaphysics, and on his arguments about knowledge and the philosophy of perception.

Michael Thomas Williams, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria. Michael Thomas Williams, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien, Österreich.