Twentieth Century Panditas of Kolkata
With the arrival of the colonial education in India, a nationalist urge swept across the Indian subcontinent. And Kolkata was not an exception. There was a conscious attempt on the part of the traditional scholars, to make the philosophical insights available in ancient India available to the modern intelligent readers who for several reasons lost touch with the original Sanskrit intellectual world. Many Sanskrit commentaries were translated with detail explanatory notes in Bengali. These works written in vernacular constitute a rich tradition of recent Indian philosophical repertoire. In this digital library attempts have been made to make these works accessible to the interested researchers.
The Brahmasūtra – Śāṅkarabhāṣya: Bhāmatī (Volume-1) ব্রহ্মসূত্র – শাঙ্করভাষ্য ভামতী (১ম খন্ড)
This book is a detailed Bengali translation and explanation of the Bhāmatī commentary on Saṅkarāchārya’s commentary, written by Srimohan Bhattacharya. Vācaspati Miśra is the author of Bhāmatī commentary. During the course of the explanation, Srimohan Bhattacharya highlights the views held by the author of Bhāmatī as different from another commentarial tradition of Advaita Vedānta, viz. the Vivaraṇa school. The Bhāmatī commentator defends his interpretation of some of the fundamental concepts of Advaita Vedānta viz. the nature of the discourse on Brāhman, the nature of svādhyāya, refutation of Śabdaparikṣāvāda, the nature of the individual jīva, the locus of ajñāna, etc. This is a fine example of intra-school philosophical debate that could be found in many other classical Indian philosophical systems.
The Vyakti-Viveka (Part-1) व्यक्ति-विवेक:
This book, written by Mahima Bhaṭṭa, has been explained in Bengali by Bishnupada Bhattacharya. In this book, the author criticizes the Dhvani theory propounded by Ānandavardhan. Mahima Bhaṭṭa, like fellow Kashmir thinkers, was influenced by the philosophy of Pratyabhijñā. Mahima Bhaṭṭa was also well acquainted with the works of Diṅnāga and Dharmakīrti. The central contention of Mahima Bhaṭṭa, which has been explained in this book, is that Dhvani theory and vyāñjanā relation could be included in inferential knowledge. Mahima Bhaṭṭa argues that words have only the power of meaning and nothing else is required to account for the denotative power.
Vedānta-Darśanam (Volume-1) বেদান্ত দর্শনম (১ম খন্ড)
The author of this book, Kalivar Vedantavagisa, presents a detail exposition of Saṅkarācarya’s commentary on Vedānta-Sutra along with a presentation of the views of the author of the commentary called ’Bhāmati’. This book extends to the four chapters of the Vedānta-Sutra. Durgacaran Sāṁkhya-Vedānta-tirtha adds his own understanding of the different interpretations of various sutras.
With the arrival of the colonial education in India, a nationalist urge swept across the Indian subcontinent. And Kolkata was not an exception. There was a conscious attempt on the part of the traditional scholars, to make the philosophical insights available in ancient India available to the modern intelligent readers who for several reasons lost touch with the original Sanskrit intellectual world. Many Sanskrit commentaries were translated with detail explanatory notes in Bengali. These works written in vernacular constitute a rich tradition of recent Indian philosophical repertoire. In this digital library attempts have been made to make these works accessible to the interested researchers.