MILTON'S NOBLE words about great books that they constitute the precious life blood of master spirits to be treasured up for a life beyond life is applicable not only to Nyaya Sudha of Jayatirtha but also to the comprehensive exposition in English (in two volumes) of the entire chapter of that work called "Samanvaya Adhyaya'' by Dr. B.N.K. Sharma, an acknowledged authority on Dvaita Vedanta. To put it in one word of Karl H. Potter, Chief Editor, Encyclopaedia of Indian Philosophies, University of Washington (in his foreword to this book): ``As those acquainted with the first part of the present translation will recognise, Prof. Sharma gives here much more than a translation. He has in fact provided what only a master-teacher can provide, an in-depth analysis of the very heart of the work in all its considerable detail.
He is a most lively master-teacher as well, he not only elucidates the meaning of the text, but rebuts those who rush ahead without the proper foundations on which to attempt their task (as his rebuttal of John Plott's opinions illustrates)."
This reviewer, an Advaitin by birth and conviction, was tempted to quote extensively from this volume to prove Potter's point but he has restrained himself from doing it, so that the avid reader may find for himself what ``mighty good reading'' these 300 pages of excellent print make, awakening philosophical interest and taking the attentive reader into the inner shrine of Dvaita thought.
The work unveils the picture of Jayatirtha as a new thinker of the first rank, able to hold his own in controversy with the masters of the reigning school of Sankara's Advaita philosophy and to assert the claims of Madhva school of thought with new power and enviable insight.
Dr. B.N.K. Sharma's exposition in English of Jayatirtha's Nyaya Sudha in these two volumes makes the work a classic that will live like the other works of this distinguished and venerable scholar, stimulating thinkers from time to time to fresh thought.
Author of Above article is Dr. B.N.K. Sharma; Published by Visva Madhwa Mahaparisat, Sri Uttaradi Mutt, Basavanagudi, Bangalore-560004. Rs. 150.
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