This full-scaled monograph, rich in factographic material, concerns Nārāyaṇa Guru (1855/56--1928), a founder of a powerful socio-religious movement in Kerala. He wrote in three languages (Malayalam, Sanskrit, Tamil), drawing on three different literary conventions. The world of this complex philosophic-religious literature is brought closer to the reader with rare deft and dexterity by the Author who not only retrieves for us the original circumstances, language and poetic metre of each work but also supplies histories of their reception. Thanks to numerous glosses, comments and elucidations supplied by the Author, we can much better understand how Nārāyaṇa’s mystical universe creatively relates to the Tamil Œaiva Siddhānta and to Kerala’s variety of Vedānta tradition.


Prof. Cezary Galewicz