ABSTRACT
The Vedāntaparibhāṣā (VP) 1 of Dharmarājadhvarindra (fl. c. 1615) is frequently indicated as an introductory handbook for the study of Advaita Vedānta, analogous to such works as the Tarkasaṃgraha for Nyāya, or the Mīmāṃsāparibhāṣā for Pūrvamīmāṃsā. To identify it in this way is, however, perhaps to miss the VP's most significant and remarkable feature, which is that it represents the most obvious case of philosophy as system construction found in Advaita literature. The significance and remarkability of this is that it gives the lie to a mistaken impression often disseminated about Advaita, which is that it is by the very nature of its thought mystical, unsystematic or even antisystematic. While those acquainted with Advaita literature are likely not to be victimized by this mistaken impression, it is a common enough one to be worth exposing, especially since it is sometimes implied that it is precisely this mystical, un- or anti-systematic nature which constitutes the glory of Advaita. The Vedāntaparibhāṣā, I shall attempt to show, is systematic in a rigorous sense of the word, and it is instructive to view Advaita in its terms, which stand at the culmination of a history of many centuries of careful work of developing Advaita as system.
