Sucharita Adluri - Textual Authority in Classical Indian Thought: Rāmānuja and the Viṣṇu Purāṇa

Textual Authority in Classical Indian Thought

Theistic Vednta originated with Rmnuja (10771157), who was one of the foremost theologians of Viidvaita Vednta and also an initiate of the rvaiava sectarian tradition in South India. As devotees of the God Viu and his consort r, the rvaiavas established themselves through various processes of legitimation as a powerful sectarian tradition. One of the processes by which the authority of the rvaiavas was consolidated was Rmnujas synthesis of popular Hindu devotionalism with the philosophy of Vednta.

This book demonstrates that by incorporating a text often thought to be of secondary importancethe Viu Pura (first to fourth century CE)into his reading of the Upaniads, which were the standard of orthodoxy for Vednta philosophy, Rmnuja was able to interpret Vednta within the theistic context of rvaiavism. Rmnuja was the first Brahmin thinker to incorporate devotional puras into Vednta philosophy and his synthetic theology called Viidvaita (unity-of-the-differenced) wielded tremendous influence over the expansion of Viu devotionalism in South India. In this book, the exploration of the exegetical function of the Viu Pura in arguments salient to Rmnujas Vednta facilitates our understanding of the processes of textual accommodation and reformulation that allow the incorporation of divergent doctrinal claims.

Expanding on and reassessing current views on Rmnujas theology, the book contributes new insights to broader issues in religious studies such as canon expansion, commentarial interpretation, tradition-building, and the comparative study of scripture. It will be of interest to students and scholars of Indian philosophy and Religious Studies.

Sucharita Adluri is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion at Cleveland State University. Her research interests include the History of Religions of South India, Sanskrit Commentary and Intellectual History.

Textual Authority in Classical Indian Thought

Rmnuja and the Viu Pura

Sucharita Adluri

First published 2015

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ISBN: 978-0-415-69575-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-75482-6 (ebk)

For my teacher

Contents

This book is based on ideas developed in my doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, and I owe a deep gratitude to my advisors, Frank Clooney (Harvard University), E. Ann Matter, and Ludo Rocher. In the initial stages, I worked extensively with Ludo and Frank and I thank them for all their helpful feedback. I am also grateful to Ann for her unflagging support and encouragement.

My initial research in India was supported by the Fulbright Program and I would also like to thank Cleveland State University for additional funding. I am grateful to the late Dr. M. Narasimhachary (University of Madras), K.S. Varadachary of Mysore, and Dr. S. Padmanabhan (University of Madras) for working with me on the commentaries of Rmnuja. My thanks also, to the folks at Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, Chennai for all their help.

Friends and family have cheered me on during this work Sunita Adluri, Ashish Agrawal, Signe Cohen, Leah Comeau, Benjamin Fleming, Amruta Inamdar, Mrs. Vasantha Parthasarthy, Annette Reed, Valerie Stoker, Mrs. Vishalam Ramanathan, and Kate Zubkoand I am grateful for their support. My thanks, also to Gavin Flood, Dorothea Schaefter, Jillian Morrison, and Rebecca Lawrence at Routledege. Last but not least, I would like to thank my colleagues in the Department of Philosophy and Comparative Religion at Cleveland State University for all their encouragement and support.

Rmnuja (10771157), one of the foremost proponents of systematic theistic Vednta This theology, that came to be known as Viidvaita (unity-of-the-differenced), wielded tremendous influence over the expansion of Viu devotionalism in South India and beyond. By incorporating more popular religious texts such as the Viu Pura (VP) into his reading of the Vednta texts, which were the standard of orthodoxy for Vednta philosophy, Rmnuja legitimized identification of the absolute principle, Brahman, in the upaniads, with the supreme deity Viu. While he was certainly not the first Brahmin thinker to be influenced by the devotional puras, he was the first to incorporate such traditions into Vednta philosophy.

Broadly speaking this study investigates Rmnujas use of the VP to accommodate, within Vednta, the doctrinal claims of the rvaiava sectarian tradition. Though it has been noted by many scholars that he is one of the first Vednta commentators to identify the supreme reality of the upaniads, Brahman, with the deity Viu, there are not many sources that investigate how Rmnuja manages this. I suggest that the use of the