शिवज्ञानबोध (मेय्कण्डार - शैव सिद्धान्त का आधारभूत दार्शनिक सूत्र ग्रन्थ)

iv SIVAGNAÑA BOTHAM.
is popularly known as Visishtadwaitha Bashya or Sutta Adwai-
ta Bashya. And the work is published in parts in the Pandit
Vols. 6 and 7. This commentary of Sri Kanta Charya, the learned
translator of the Vedanta Sutras, Mr. George Thibaut does not
seem to have come across, and he nowhere alludes to it by name;
and yet the results arrived at by him as to the teachings of the
Sutras after a lengthy discussion and comparison of the respect-
ive interpretations of the texts by Sri Sankara and Sri Ramanuja,
exactly fall in with the interpretation of the Sutras by Sri
Kanta Charya. The learned translator observes (Introduction p. c.)
“If, now, I am shortly to sum up the results of the preceding
enquiry, as to the teaching of the Sutras, I must give it as my
opinion that they do not set forth the distinction of a higher and
lower knowledge of Brahman; that they do not acknowledge the
distinction of Brahman and Isvara in Sankara's sense; that they
do not hold the doctrine of the unreality of the world; that they
do not, with Sankara, proclaim the absolute identity of the indi-
vidual and the highest self.” These are exactly points where
Sankara and Sri Kanta differ. The translator further remarks
that he agrees with Ramanuja's mode of interpretation in some
important details, for instance, in regard to the doctrine of
Parinama Vada and interpretation of fourth Adhyaya. These
are also points where Ramanuja agrees with Sri Kanta. But
Sri Kanta differs from both in their interpretations of the pass-
ages referring to Nirguna and Saguna Brahm, and follows
the doctrine of the Siddhantha School. And the doctrine of
Parinama Vada is the only distinguishing mark of Sri Kanta's
Vedanta Philosophy as opposed to the Siddhantha Philosophy;
and it is this Vedanta and not Sankara's Vedanta, that is re-
ferred to approvingly by all Tamil writers and Sages, as in
the passage of Thirumular and Thayumanavar above quoted.
The ground work of Sivagnana Botham is the one adopted by
Sri Kanta for the Vedanta Sutras, and as far as I have been
able to compare, they exactly tally, except where Sankara's forced