This study offers a panoramic view of the creative, expository, interpretive, dialectic, polemical, didactic and devotional phases of Dvaita philosophy, and its literature with a clear chronological setting of literary, historical and epigraphic materials. Written in lucid style it presents a vigorous and sparkling historical exposition of the mighty currents of Realistic Theism, originating in the Vedic and post-Vedic sources of Madhva philosophy finding their culmination in the Dvaita Vedanta of Madhvacarya, and the long line of his great commentators and followers, over a period of seven centuries from the thirteenth century onwards.

World Philosophies presents in one volume a superb introduction to all the world’s major philosophical and religious traditions. Covering all corners of the globe, Ninian Smart’s work offers a comprehensive and global philosophical and religious picture. In this revised and expanded second edition, a team of distinguished scholars, assembled by the editor Oliver Leaman, have brought Ninian Smart’s masterpiece up to date for the twenty-first century. Chapters have been revised by experts in the field to include recent philosophical developments, and the book includes a new bibliographic guide to resources in world philosophies. A brand new introduction which celebrates the career and writings of Ninian Smart, and his contribution to the study of world religions, helps set the work in context.

This book is a critique of western systematic theology. It borrows insights from India and other traditions; it is not a synthesis of religious traditions. The book includes two parts, method and systematics. It examines the traditional topics of systematic theology '- topics such as the existence and nature of God, revelation and reason, religious ethics and human practice, the relation of God to the world, Christology, and eschatology - and allows these topics to grow in conversation with India and to change according to dialogical insights. The book is prompted by a perceived need to cross the boundaries between western and Indian worldviews in a systematic and comprehensive way. The purpose of the book is to enable scholars worldwide to extend their theological resources and to look anew at the problems and prospects of a comparative, systematic theology.

The Bhagavadgita has lent itself to several readings to defend or contest various views on life, morality, and metaphysics. This book explores the the role of the Bhagavadgita in the formation of nationalist discourse. It examines the ways in which the Gita became the central terrain of nationalist contestation, and the diverse ethico-moral mappings of the Indian nation. Focusing on Bankimchandra Chatterjee, Balgangadhar Tilak, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo Ghose, Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave, and B.R. Ambedkar as the representatives of different strands of nationalist discourse, this volume probes their reflections on the Gita. The author also discusses with issues such as the relation between the nation and the masses, renunciation and engagement with the world, the ideas of equality, freedom, and common good, in the context of a nationalist discourse. He argues that the commentaries on this 'timeless' text opened up several possible understandings without necessarily eliminating one another.