Shankara and Indian Philosophy

Since taking her Ph.D. from Moscow University, Natalia Isayeva has been a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow (Academy of Sciences of the USSR).

• I. Introduction II. The Beginning of Vedanta: A Histirical Sketch 1. Vedanta and Heterodox Schools in Historical Retrospective2. Predecessors of Sankara III. Biography of Sankara And His Main Works 1. Sankara's Life2. Works of Sankara: Reliability of Attribution and Composition Peculiarities IV. Pure Brahman as Consciousness: Apophatic Theology and the Problem of Contradiction 1. Sankara's Advaita and Lokryata2. Advaita and Jainism V. Brahman as Being: Cataphatic Theology and the Boldness of Heretics 1. Sankara's Polemics with Saavrstivada2. Sankara and Mahayaan Buddhist Schools VI. Brahman in Language and Ritual: Freedom and Moral Duties 1. Advaita and Purva-Mimamsa2. The Problem of the Human Soul: Advaita and its Closest Counterparts VII. Conclusion 1. Summary2. Vedanta after Sankara Bibliography Index

"The book is extremely interesting and easy to follow. It will be a landmark work in the study of Shankara. No one else in the last fifty years has had the courage to tackle the whole of Shankara's work in the context of India's other philosophical traditions. The comparisons with other Indian traditions are often brilliant and the comparisons with modern Western thinkers illuminating and suggestive."Well-organized, clear, and coherent, it builds on the work of other Indologists, proceeding by way of analysis of original texts. By comparing Shankara's thought first with the thought of those systems most alien to it (for example, Lokayata and Sarvastivada), the larger context and picture of Advaita comes clearly into view. By then going on to compare Shankara with allied traditions (for example, Mimamsa Vishishthadvaita, and Dvaita Vedanta), the subtleties of his thought are brought out. Throughout, the reader gets a sense of the lively encounter of ideas that characterize the development of India's philosophical traditions." — John Koller