PDNRL No. 28 Roque Mesquita: Madhva, Viṣṇutattvanirṇaya. Annotierte Übersetzung mit Studie. Wien 2000, Hardcover, 562p. EUR 56.-

Abstract

Madhva was an enigmatic personality in the Indian intellectual world of the early thirteenth century, not least because he developed a new self-contained Vedāntic system which had no links to any existing Vedānta tradition.
Madhva holds the prevailing Indian view that philosophy is closely associated with religion and that it is not autonomous or purely theoretical. A philosophy free of soteriological motives is unknown in classical India. New in Madhva's approach, however, is the combining of a philosophical system with prophetical thinking. He attributes the ultimate validity of his teaching to the uniqueness of his appearance as an avatāra of Vāyu, Son of Viṣṇu, and sees himself as a divinely appointed teacher with a mission to refute false doctrines, to annihilate the reign of terror of asuras/daityas and to proclaim the ultimate supremacy of Viṣṇu.
In order to substantiate his claim as avatāra he cites numerous sources and quotations. All of these, however, are unknown and in fact turn out to be fictitious, as for instance the reference alluding to Baitthāsūkta (Rgveda I 141,1-3) as a prophecy heralding the arrival of Madhva as aṃśāvatāra of Viṣṇu (vaticinium ex eventu). None of the famous ancient authors in India before him had dared to claim to be an incarnation of God. It was left to their disciples to honour and adore them as avatāras.
A special feature of Madhva's school is the originality of its teaching which, not depending on a guruparaṃparā, goes back to the otherworldly authority of Madhva. The doctrine or the message of Madhva thus appears as a revealed religion. It is clear from Madhva's statements that he is sincerely convinced of his mission to proclaim all canonical works in the name of Viṣṇu in the Kali-age by virtue of divine charisma (viṣṇuprasādāt). And on the basis of this conviction Madhva can directly attribute to Viṣṇu the authorship of unknown sources or the quotations he adduces to substantiate his peculiar doctrinal tenets (satsiddhāntāḥ); he attributes even the argumentation (yuktayaḥ) used to prove these tenets to Viṣṇu himself (proktāḥ svayaṃ bhagavataiva). The above issues have been discussed for the first time in R. Mesquita, Madhva und seine unbekannten literarischen Quellen. Einige Beobachtungen [Publications of the De Nobili Research Library 24]. Vienna 1997 -(also available in English [Madhva's Unknown Literary Sources. Some Observations. New Delhi (Aditya Prakashan) 2000]) -- and subsequently also in R. Mesquita, Madhva: Viṣṇutattvanirṇaya. Annotierte Übersetzung mit Studie [Publications of the De Nobili Research Library 28]. Vienna 2000. Other crucial themes presented in the latter book in connection with Madhva's dualistic System is the discussion of the position of God, Man and the World, following the thought pattern of analogia entis and implying the concept of creatio ex nihilo.

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