[Advaita-l] NAISKARMYASIDDHIH

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>There is a very useful edition of the Naiskarmyasiddhih (NS) of Sri Suresvaracarya with the hitherto unpublished
>Bhavatattvaprakasika of Sri Citsukhacarya (BP) gloss thereon, edited for the first time accompanied by detailed
>notes in Sanskrit and a Hindi translation of the NS along with a Hindi commentary based on the BP by Dr. Swami
>Prajnanananda Saraswati, Vedantacarya, Vyakaranatirtha, Sastrcakravarti, published by the Daksinamurti Matha,
>Varanasi.  A second edition of the work was published last year. 
>  
 
Thanks for this information. The Dakshinamurti Math in Varanasi has published numerous key advaita vedAnta
texts over the last few decades and it is heartening to note that more publications are continuing to appear. 

>  Herein (i.e. in the Introduction) there is a rather long chapter (16 pages) on "Sri Suresvaracaryah", where Swamiji
>has shown that there were two Mandana Misras - one Mimamsaka, who was defeated in polemics by Srimad Adya
>Sankaracarya and became Sri Suresvaracarya later on, and another Mandana Misra, who was a Sabdatvaidavadi. 
>Swamiji supports his contention by quoting from such works
> as the Samksepasariraka, which were well aware of the difference in their identity, as well as from modern works
>such as those of Anantakrishna Sastri, and others.  The most fascinating finding of Swamiji regarding the difference
>in the identity of the two Mandanas is, as he has shown, Sri Suresvaracarya himself knew of the existence of another
>Mandana Misra whose views he refuted in one of his works.  
  
In this connection, please also see the earliest printed publication of Mandana Misra's Brahmasiddhi, edited by S.
Kuppuswamy Sastri in the year 1937. The opinion of the then Jagadguru Sankaracharya of Sringeri is quoted in
the foreword by Sri P P Subrahmanya Sastri, regarding the identity of Mandana Misra. As per this Acharya's view
also, the Mandana Misra who became Suresvara (according to the Sankaravijaya texts) cannot be identified with
the Mandana Misra who wrote the Brahmasiddhi. In any case, none of the Sankaravijaya texts indicate that the
Mandana Misra who debated Mimamsa with Adi Sankaracharya was the author of Brahmasiddhi. All these texts
describe Mandana only as a Karma Mimamsaka, prior to becoming a disciple of Sankaracharya.
 
Best regards,
Vidyasankar