A Treatise on Advaita Vedanta

A prakarana in old Hindi (one of the regional mixed dialects), Vicara-candrodaya elucidates the basic concepts of Advaita Vedanta in the form of questions and answers. Pandit Pitambar, the author of the text, presents this work as a dialogue between a guru and his disciple. This book is an English translation of Vicaracandrodaya, by S. Bhuvaneshwari. It is spread across 249 questions and their answers, and takes the reader into the essence of the entire Vedantagastra. It also has a Laghu-vedanta-kaa explaining the basic Vedantic terms and a chapter as "index" providing quick reference to the basic concepts of Advaita Vedanta.

The author enunciates that a true knowledge seeker who studies this text under a brahmanistha guru will get to know the "secrete knowledge" of Vedanta. And this knowledge will dispel darkness from his mind as the rising moon dispels darkness from the world. However, he insists that it should be studied from a guru with graddha as Vedanta cannot be grasped without the guidance of an enlightened teacher. Also, this book serves as a ready reference to the basic concepts as discussed in Paticadat of Vidyaranya and Vicarasagara of Nigcaladasa.

This volume is both a guide to the beginners in Vedanta and a text for nididhyasana. It will benefit all the people who dwell in the domain of Vedanta.

S. Bhuvaneshwari (b. 1976) has been studying the Prasthanatraya, Bhasya and Advaita Prakaranas from Swami Paramarthananda Sarasvati of Chennai since 1994. Having obtained a BA in Economics and MA in Public Admin-istration, she later branched out and procured her Masters in Philosophy, and Sanskrit as well. She is a Gold Medalist in MA Philosophy from the Department of Philosophy, University of Madras (2004-06). She is the recipient of University Research Fellowship for her Doctorate at the Department of Sanskrit, University of Madars (2009-10) and was awarded the PhD (2010) for her study on the Sanskrit text Vicarasagara. Her other area of interest is Philosophy of Art, especially the aesthetic theories of Bharata, Abhinavagupta and Hegel, and has been teaching Aesthetics and Indian Philosophy as guest lecturer in various reputed institutions in Chennai since 1997. She continues her study of Advaita works in Sanskrit, Hindi and Tamil and is currently working on some unpublished Advaita texts available as paper manuscripts at the Government Oriental Manuscript Library and Adyar Research Library, Chennai. She has over fifteen articles to her credit in both Advaita Vedanta and Aesthetics.

**Contents and Sample Pages**