Baladeva Vidyabhusana Project

2011-10-31T05:22:00.001-07:00

This 18th century painting is found at Radha-Gokulananda mandir in Vrndavan

The Vidyabhusana Project has been launched to collect, preserve and translate the works of Sri Baladeva Vidyabhusana, to whom Srila Prabhupada dedicated his Bhagavad-gita As It Is. The intellectual genius of Sri Vidyabhusana is equal in all respects to that of Sri Jiva Gosvami, Sri Ramanuja Acarya, Sri Vedanta Desika or any of the greatest philosophers, and it is most unfortunate that even among vaisnava circles his works do not yet occupy the exalted position they deserve. He not only left an outstanding philosophical legacy, but also important works on grammar, poetics, literature, prosody and dramaturgy.

Almost 250 years have passed since Sri Vidyabhusana departed from this world, and since then only a few serious attempts have been made to preserve his works. In the first half of the last century, with great hardship Haridas das Babaji from Navadvip and Krishnadas Babaji from Radhakunda collected manuscripts from all over India and managed to publish a good number of them. Their books, however, were distributed in limited numbers and locations and have long been out of print. Several manuscripts have never been published, while others are supposedly lost. It is the proper time to excavate and collect whatever remains so that this priceless asset of the Gaudiya sampradaya can be preserved and made easily accessible.

The Vidyabhusana Project has the following primary objectives:

1. Search for lost manuscripts. (Such as the commentaries on nine Upanisads, Srimad Bhagavatam, etc.)
2. Digitally preserve manuscripts currently existing in different libraries.
3. Digitally preserve all editions of Vidyabhusana’s books.
4. Digitally preserve articles written about Vidyabhusana.
5. Type all the original texts in digital unicode system, which can be converted into Devanagari, Bengali and Oriyan characters.
6. Prepare a critical edition for each work.
7. Translate all the works into English.
8. Publish all translations with the original Devanagari text.
9. Investigate and verify existent biographical data of Vidyabhusana, including historical evidences of the conflict between the Gaudiyas and the Ramanandis of Rajasthan.
10. Publish a comprehensive biographical work.

The following institutions and individuals are kindly cooperating to achieve the objectives of the project:

• Sanskrit Faculty, Benares Hindu University
• Matsya Avatara dasa, Bhagavata Vidyapitha
• Sanjaya Sharma Research Institute, Jaipur
• Sri Krishna Gopalananda Gosvami, Mahanta of Sri Sri Radha-Syamasundara Temple, the home of Vidyabhusana in Vrindavan
• Jiva Institute, Vrindavan
• Gaudiya Grantha Mandira

At present, the English translation of two books have been prepared:

1. Siddhanta-darpana: A treatise written by Vidyabhusana that establishes the Srimad Bhagavatam as the sound incarnation of the Lord and refutes several objections against its authenticity.
2. Chandah-kaustubha: A book written by Radha-Damodara Gosvami and commented by Vidyabhusana in which 264 different poetic meters are described and exemplified. It will soon be published by Chaukhamba Sanskrit Samsthan, India’s largest publisher of traditional Sanskrit texts.

We invite and welcome anyone who wishes to help in any capacity to attain our objectives. We particularly request assistance in the following ways:

1. Contacting libraries and research institutes in India and abroad.
2. Locating and acquiring texts.
3. Typing devanagari and Bengali texts in transliterated Roman script.
4. Proofreading transliterated texts.
5. Website development and maintanence.
6. Editing and publishing.
7. Financial support for meeting travel and accomodation expenses.

To enquire, donate or provide assistance in any capacity, please use the CONTACT link above.

Complete works of Baladeva Vidyabhusana:

1. Aisvarya-kadambini; (Haridas Shastri), (Haridas das)
2. Isopanisad; (Krishnadas Baba), (Sarasvata Gaudiya Mission), (Shyam Lal,3 comm.), (Bhaktivinoda)
3. Kavya-kaustubha; (Haridas das), (Haridas Shastri)
4. Gopala-tapany-upanisad-bhasya; (Haridas das)
5. Candraloka-tika, (supposedly lost)
6. Chandah-kaustubha-tika; (Haridas das), (Haridas Shastri), (Vrindavan Research Inst.)
7. Tattva-dipika (Manuscript, Jiva Institute)
8. Tattva-sandarbha-tika; (Harinam Press), (Haridas Shastri), (Nityasvarupa), (Jadavpur), (Acyuta-grantha-mala), (Krishnachandra Bhagavataratna)
Commentary on five other Sandarbhas; (supposedly lost)
9. Nataka-candrika-tika; (supposedly lost)
10. Pada-kaustubha, (unpublished manuscript)
11. Prameya-ratnavali; (Haridas Shastri), (Gokul Chandra Goswami), (Sanskrit Parisad), (Kanai Lal), (Gaudiya Math), (Gour Krishna Goswami),
12. Bhagavad-gita (gita-bhusana); (Krishnadas Baba), (Gaudiya Mission), (Vidyananda), (Kasinatha S. Agase and Baba S. Phadake)
13. Laghu-bhagavatamrta-tika (saranga-rangada); (Haribhakta das), (Ramanarayana Vidyaratna), (Venkatesh Press), (Atul Krishna Gosvami), (Gaurasundar Bhagavata)
14. Visnu-sahasra-nama-tika (nama-sudhartha); (Krishnadas Baba)
15. Vedanta-sutra-Govinda-bhasya; (Sarasvata-Gaudiya Mission), (Harinam Press), (Krishnadas Baba), (Shyam Lal Goswami), (Krishnagopal Bhakta)
16. Vedanta-sutra-suksma-tika; (Sarasvata-Gaudiya Mission), (Shyam Lal Goswami)
17. Vedanta-syamantaka; (Haridas Shastri), (Umesh Chandra Bhattacharya, Lahore), (Kalidasnath), (Nalinikant Gosvami), (Pancavati, Nasik), (Shyam Lal Goswami)
18. Vyakarana-kaumudi; (unpublished manuscript)
19. Srimad-bhagavata-bhasya (vaisnavanandini); prathama skandha, (Haridas das);
dasama skandha (Krishna-Shankar Shastri, incomplete), (Nityasvarupa/Manindra Bahadur)
20. Syamananda-sataka-tika, (Haridas das), (Gopala-Govindananda Goswami)
21. Sahitya-kaumudi; (Haridas Shastri),(Rastriya Sanskrit Samstham),(NirnayaSagar Press)
22. Siddhanta-darpana; (Haridas das), (Gaudiya Math), (Sajjana-tosani)
23. Siddhanta-ratna; (Krishnadas Baba), (Gopinath Kaviraj), (Shyam Lal Goswami), (Gaudiya Vedanta Samiti), (Adimohana Goswami), (Gaurasundar Bhagavata)
24. Stava-mala-tika; (Nirnaya Sagar Press), (Ramanarayana Vidyaratna)

Books wrongly attributed to BV:

Krsna-bhavanamrta-tika, (Krsnadeva Sarvabhauma)
Gupta-dhama-chatra, (Kanai Lal)
Gopala-campu-tika, (Viracandra Gosvami)
Padyavali-tika (rasika-rangada), (Viracandra Gosvami)
Bala-tosani, (Hare Krsna acarya)
Samsaya-satini, (Raghunandana Gosvami)
Sadananda-vidhayini-tika , (Vrndavana Cakravarti)
Stavavali-kasika, (Vangesvara Vidyabhusana)

So far we have collected digital copies of about 60 books and a few manuscripts:

AISVARYA-KADAMBINI:

BRAHMA-SUTRA-KARIKA-BHASYA

CHANDAH-KAUSTUBHA-BHASYA:

GITA-BHUSANA:

GOPALA-TAPANY-UPANISAD-BHASYA:

GOVINDA-BHASYA:

ISOPANISAD-BHASYA:

KAVYA-KAUSTUBHA:

LAGHU-BHAGAVATAMRTA-TIKA:

NAMARTHA-SUDHA:

PRAMEYA-RATNAVALI:

SAHITYA-KAUMUDI:

SIDDHANTA-DARPANA:

SIDDHANTA-RATNA:

STAVA-MALA-TIKA:

SUKSMA-TIKA:

SYAMANANDA-SATAKA-TIKA:

TATTVA-DIPIKA:

TATTVA-SANDARBHA-TIKA:

VAISNAVANANDINI:

VEDANTA-SYAMANTAKA: