[Advaita-l] Advaitabodhadipika

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

Thankyou to all those who replied.  Sorry but due to Chaitra Navaratri and 
its aftermath I haven't been able to respond until now.

On Fri, 9 Apr 2021, Ven Balakrishnan 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:
>

I am unable to verify for myself but several trustworthy people have told 
me that the 19th century book I mentioned (which incidently matches the 
date for the original composition as mentioned in the English 
composition.) wwas in Tamil only and not including any Sanskrit except 
quotations.

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l wrote:

> I was under the impression it was originally a Tamil grantha translated by

> Karapatra Swamiji in to Sanskrit. But it looks like the presumably old
> Baroda and Travanacore MS were in sanskrit.
>

On Sun, 11 Apr 2021, Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan via Advaita-l wrote:

> The preface talks about manuscripts obtained from the Maharaja of
> Travancore and the Maharaja of Baroda and returning them after translating
> them.


This is also kind of strange.  If as it seems there are only quotations 
from Sanskrit (and well known works at that) why would a translator in 
Chennai have to send off to distant Travancore or Vadodra (Baroda) for 
manuscripts when there were many libraries and vidvans much closer to 
home?  Or is the Sanskrit original of the Advaitabodhadipika itself which 
is meant.  Unfortunately although catalogues of both collections have been 
made, they do not seem to be online and due to the Corona situation I 
can't go to a library where I can consult them.

On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, KAMESWARARAO MULA via Advaita-l 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.

One thing we can conclusively say is that this author is not the famous 
20th century Karapatra Swami of Kashi.


On Sat, 10 Apr 2021, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l wrote:

> Also this Karapatra Swamiji is not the well-known Karapatri Swamiji
> (1905-1982), I presume. Is there any date mentioned for sanskrit author
> Karapatra Swamiji?

Our list member Shri Gopal Gopinath found this web page which gives some 
biographical details:

http://news-amanushyam.blogspot.com/2012/12/karapaathira-sivaprakasa-swamig
al.html

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>