THE appearance of this work was adumbrated in the Artha-Pancaka or The "Five Truths", in the pages of the JRAS (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society), p. 565, July 1910. It was to have appeared in the same Journal, but for paucity of space for a work extending over more than 45 pages. It was decided therefore to bring out an independent edition in India, which, as a book of reference for all time on the Visishta-dvaita Philosophy and Religion, is expected to be more accommodating to the general reader than if it appeared in an academic Journal inaccessible to all. Being an academic work itself, the printing of it in propria forma demanded by the exigencies of Samskrta orthography, was made possible by the Meykandan Press, under the supervision of its intelligent proprietor Mr. J. N. Ramanathan, of Madras, under-taking to meet all the requirements incidental to such a work. It is hoped the readers will find the justness of my remarks when they may come to examine it for themselves.
2. In the shape of introduction to the work, very little need be written, it seems to me, inasmuch as scholars are more in need of original matter than attempts made at theses for which there seems at present no warranty. But if a popular introduction were yet deemed necessary, my work called the Vade Mecum of Vedanta affords an appropriate pourparler to the Yatindra-Mata-Dipika, the work which, with this preface, makes its debut into the arena of Indology. The necessity also for such preliminaries is as far as possible obviated by the copious foot-notes which will be found sprinkled in sufficient profusion, in almost every page, not only to elucidate the abstruse subject-matter but as well to reduce to the utmost minimum the jejune nature which is a sine qua non of all academic studies, the Oriental in a large measure. The desideratum for a separate glossary of technical terms which by necessity teem in all works of an academic nature, is met by the scheme, adopted in this work, of inditing all such terms side by side their English, in brackets or otherwise. Facilities for comprehension are better afforded, I trust, by this mode than if they had to be procured by constant references to a glossary at the sacrifice of time, with mental poise liable to be ruffled by such a process of glossarial interference, at every step of a perusal. Strictest fidelity to the original Samskąta might, it is feared, have led to the English rendering being found stiff and in places lacking, peradventure, in clarity. But this is due more to the technical nature of the subject than to any per functoriness on the part of the translator, who is conscious of having done his best. The subject itself is rigid, and invites the mental concentration of the student, not the surface-skimming of the light reader. 3. With regard to the author of Yatindra-Mata Dipika, srinivasa, we learn from the invocatory verses (left untranslated), where mention of Maha-"carya in the preliminary of Advent I, synonymously referred to again as Ghana-guru-vara in the Colophon is made, that he, (viz., srinivasa) is the immediate disciple of Dodday-arya, which is the colloquial of Maha-"arya which is the same as Maha-"carya. There is a succession of apostles of the Ramanuja School beginning from Dasarathi or Mudaliy-andan, sri-Ramanuja's sister's son, famed as of the Kandaļai descent. To this stem belong all the Maha-"caryas, a branch-an important one settling down at Ghatika-'cala, otherwise known as Chola-simhapuram (vulgarised as Sholinghur,-a station on the Railway track linking Bangalur and Madras), which is referred to by srinivasa, the author of Yatindra-Mata-Dipika, as Ghațika-"dri, in his invocatory verse to the work.
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