One God, One System Ven

One God, One System charts a history of Sanskrit philosophy in the absence of an agreed-upon canon, timeline, principal thinkers, or core philosophical questions. Contrary to previous ahistorical approaches centered on unchanging 'schools', Elisa Freschi focuses on andreconstructs the intellectual figure of Ve:nka.tan=atha and his philosophical and theological contribution to what we now call 'Vi'si.s.t=advaita Ved=anta'. This volume explores how Vi'si.s.t=advaita Ved=anta as we know it now is largely a product of Ve:nka.tan=atha's unique philosophical and theological contributions. He connected various texts and theories so that readers and practitioners looking at the time before Ve:nka.tan=atha now recognize them as parts of a unitary whole. Once Ve:nka.tan=atha's contribution is in place it is in fact easy to look back at authors before him and recognize them as pieces of the same jigsaw puzzle. Freschi presents a novel reading of Ve:nka.tan=atha through focused chapters on his epistemology, ontology, soteriology, and theology, examining both the range and theoretical basis of his synthesis and methodology.