[Advaita-l] Advaitabodhadipika

[Gopal Gopinath]

The bibliography list on ABD appears to have been added by the 'editor' -
A. Ramaswamy, along with some editorial formatting ( as per the declaration
below the bibliography). The text has been finished up abruptly like in the
middle of a sentence before the bibliography.. The English translation
appears to have been rounded up as with a book-end of a conversation.. The
editor appears to qualify the list as comprised on the texts the author had
used in the book to cite from.
If it is so, your question gets answered, I believe.

I have not read the book intensively, but it does appear that the author
points to shruti vaakya and Viveka chudamani in the text (Example, in 7th
Prakarana), Yoga vasishta, gita in 3rd prakarana, and reference to Shankara
and Vidyaranya in the 5 th paragraph of the first chapter itself as showing
reverence to their existing works. All through the text, there are explicit
references to YV and indirect references to Upanishads.  May be this
prompted the editor to add the bibliography.  Looking at the editorial
footnotes, it appears that the editor had access to multiple manuscripts.
Some edits appear to point to paata bheda of certain topical phrases in
samkritam. The numbering of each question / Answer segment also follows a
pattern for explaining the meaning of another text by translation or
expanded explanation. All these make me wonder now whether the editor too
was referring to a samskrita or Tamil manuscript when preparing this work
for publication... It does not fit the profile of the works quoted (Sarupa
saram and Ellam Ondre).  I have nothing more to add to this.

Thanks.

On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 12:27 PM Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Thanks for the clarification.
>
> I was actually just thinking about works such as Ellam Ondre, Ozhivil
> Odukkam and Sorupa Saram, which tend to have few references to the
> upanishads, none to Sankara, and rather focus on an exposition of
> detachment / desirelessness and self-enquiry as the route to knowledge /
> liberation, rather than simply a scholarly knowledge of sruti.  As did
> Ramanamaharishi in his writing.
>
>
>
>
> > On 10 Apr 2021, at 15:29, Gopal Gopinath via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >> Who was the Karapatra swamigal of ABD?
> >
> http://news-amanushyam.blogspot.com/2012/12/karapaathira-sivaprakasa-swamigal.html
> >
> >> sankaracharya and vidyaranya, as well as the yajnavalkya-maitreyi
> > dialogue; which would be unusual for a Tamil Vedanta text.
> >
> > Not true. Vedanta, in particular, Advaita, had deep rooted scholarship in
> > Tamil community for many centuries. There is a recent history of at least
> > 600 years  in Tamil nadu where tamil speaking scholarship of all flavors
> > have flourished obtaining fluency in samskritam and Tamil, focusing on
> both
> > advaita, saiva siddhanta and vaishnava source texts.  In fact many
> > siddhar's songs and collections refer to advaitic tenets and source texts
> > directly and indirectly. Many siddhars of tamil nadu had synonymous north
> > indian personages of naath parampara of ascetics and mystics.
> >
> > The 600 years is a markup for the times of Sri Appaiya Dikshita. The
> > history pre-dates him.   As recently as 100 years, there was a Tamil
> > translation of  soundarya lahiri that had the blessings of Kanchi mutt
> > yatis by someone from chennai. The texts published by the Koviloor
> adheenam
> > also were originally authored by bi- tri lingual scholars or at least
> those
> > who studied advaitic texts from original source.  Ramana, an advaitic
> > savant from Tamil Nadu, referred to  upanishads and Yoga vasishta all
> > through his dialogs. There have been so many scholars from sections of
> > Tamil society until the advent of the Dravidian Party/Justice Party in
> the
> > socio-political realm.  One can refer to the publishers and patrons of
> this
> > ABD text that we are talking about... Hopefully, there would be an effort
> > to regain that deep cultural tradition of bi-lingual expertise and new
> > hindu scholarship in the different sections of the Tamil society going
> > forward.
> >
> > There have been scores of Tamil vedantic texts but there never had been
> any
> > tamil advaita or tamil vishishtadvaita sects.. The flow of philosophic
> > thought has been continuous and interdependent even if the language used
> > had been staggered in format and presentation
> >
> > If one goes over Sri Ramana Maharishi's tamil works, and this ABD text,
> it
> > is not hard to notice the strenuous efforts in the language to utilize
> the
> > common, pan-lingo, advaitic terms in a tamilized format. The author,
> almost
> > apologetically states at the end, that he had used samskrita mula words
> > directly in places to capture and retain the original intent and meaning
> of
> > the terms.. That particular effort to carve out a specialized tamil
> format
> > of vedantic terms could be seen in full intensity in the
> siddhanta/vedanta
> > works in Tamil composed between 1700-1920's.   By this measure, in my
> > opinion (subject to correction), ABD is an original Tamil work, an
> inspired
> > compilation of advaitic tenets in Q and A format, put together creatively
> > by Sri Sivaprakasa karapatra swamigal of Veperi, chennai. Mostly, he was
> > inspired, informed by his teachers and satsang he had the privilege to do
> > sadhana along with.  Some one translated that to samskritam and the texts
> > appeared to exist in some libraries as manuscripts for Sri Ramana's
> > scrutiny. That there is no ref to a samskritam version of the text by the
> > author or the publisher points to the chronology of the works. Efforts to
> > synthesize tenets of philosophy, puranas and itihaasa-s written in
> original
> > Samskritam  and render them in Tamil  have always been a norm in the
> Tamil
> > society for many centuries.
> >
> > my 2 cents
> >
> >
> > On Sat, Apr 10, 2021 at 6:01 AM Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l <
> > advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >
> >> The text itself references sankaracharya and vidyaranya, as well as the
> >> yajnavalkya-maitreyi dialogue; which would be unusual for a Tamil
> Vedanta
> >> text.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPad
> >>
> >>> On 10 Apr 2021, at 08:55, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l <
> >> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> The link sent showed the book was from the year 1887,But Karapatri
> >> swami lived in varanasi int he begining of 19th century i.e19005-1980:
> >>> It could be the tamil script, swamiji might have translated to sanksrit
> >> after that. or any other Tamil saint whose name matahced with varanasi
> >> karapatri swamiji.
> >>> How ever I will try to get a hindi text of that soon.
> >>> regardsKameswara Rao
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>> On Sat, 10 Apr, 2021, 12:07 am Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l, <
> >>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> My understanding from the English translation, is that it was
> originally
> >>>> written in Sanskrit by Sri Karapatra Swami and translated into Tamil
> by
> >> an
> >>>> unknown person, from which it was then translated into English by one
> of
> >>>> Ramana’s followers (Mungala Venkataramiah - the author of “Talks”).
> >>>>
> >>>> From the foreword to the book:
> >>>>
> >>>> “The last four chapters, Savikalpa Samadhi, Nirvikalpa Samadhi, Jivan
> >>>> Mukti, and Videha Mukti nor being found in Tamil, Telugu or Sanskrit
> >>>> Manuscripts could not be translated into English. Information on the
> >>>> missing chapters is earnestly sought and will b e gratefully
> >> acknowledged
> >>>> by the publisher.
> >>>> Our grateful thanks are due to H. H. Smt. Shanta Devi Maharani of
> Baroda
> >>>> and H. H. the Maharaja of Travancore for sending us the original
> >> Sanskrit
> >>>> Manuscripts of this work from the State Libraries for Maharshi's
> >>>> consultation and return.
> >>>> This book is one of the few esteemed by Sri Maharshi and this
> >> translation
> >>>> was thoroughly revised in His Presence. So we are encouraged to
> present
> >>>> this small volume to the public with full confidence that the reader
> >> will
> >>>> benefit by it.”
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>> On 9 Apr 2021, at 06:29, Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l <
> >>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> On Sun, 4 Apr 2021, V Subrahmanian wrote:
> >>>>>
> >>>>>> I scanned through all the pages and found there is no original
> >> Sanskrit
> >>>> text
> >>>>>> in this book; it is completely a translation to Tamil.  At the end
> of
> >>>> the
> >>>>>> book a list of texts cited therein is given:
> >>>>>> This includes the Veda, 'asango hyayam purushah', Vyasa Sutra,
> >> VasiShTha
> >>>>>> (Yoga Vasishtha), Vivekachudamani, Smriti, Maitrayani shakha, Gita,
> >>>>>> Pandhadashi, Purana, Ramayana and Sutasamhita.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Thankyou to all those who replied to me.  The reason I asked is
> because
> >>>> the widely available English translation published by Ramanashrama
> >> claims
> >>>> to be based off a Sanskrit translation of the original Tamil work.  I
> >>>> received a query from a person who was looking for this Sanskrit
> version
> >>>> and was unable to find it.  I have also been unable to find it.  I
> >> suspect
> >>>> there never was a Sanskrit version, the English is translated directly
> >> from
> >>>> Tamil.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> --
> >>>>> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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