Advaita Vedanta: An Introduction by Arvind Sharma

Advaita Vedanta and its chief interpretor Adi Shankaracarya (9th. Century) are in the curious position of being studiously ignored by Western philosophers probably because of the avowed soteriological intent which is contrary to the general agnostic sentiment of professional philosophy. Academic teachers of Eastern philosophy are content to paddle in the shallow waters of logic and epistemology. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

It’s no surprise then that it falls to Arvind Sharma a professor of Comparitive Religion to publish a short introduction to Advaita Vedanta - Advaita Vedanta: An Introduction pub.2004 by the Indian publisher Motilal Banarsidas and from the Wikipedia bibliography it appears to be the only book of his published by an Indian company. In the full bibliographyof 860 titles, there may be more. Is the imprint an indication of the target audience? Possibly. The book is predicated on an assumption of total ignorance of the subject so in a short 78 page booklet we may barely get into second gear nevertheless his breakdown into four sections of Introduction followed by the Scriptural, Rational and Experiential aspects of Advaita Vedanta with an extensive bibliography, is a good introduction. Within the book he makes extensive use of M. Hiriyanna’s Outlines of Indian Philosophy, a useful book published in 1932 which goes into the interplay between the different schools. Archive.org have many copies of his lucid expostion.

Worth a look I think.