Materialien zur Geschichte der Rāmānuja-Schule V

In this fifth volume of the ”Materialien zur Geschichte der Ramanuja-Schule“ the growth of the Ramanuja school’s characteristic teachings of the eternal vibhuti of God is described, from the rudiments to their classical form (Venkatanatha, ca. 14th century A. D.) and their continuing effect on Œ rinivasacarya and Narayanamuni (ca. 16th century A. D.), using the few Sanskrit texts still preserved: From a description of the beginnings of these teachings in the Bhagavadgita, in which the concept of the vibhuti describes the acting presence of God in the creation, or the special Being in the world in which the acting presence is manifested, continuing to the interpretation of the concept by Œ an . kara, and to Ramanuja, who defines the term vibhuti as the creation’s ”control“ (niyamana) or the manifestation of this control in all beings of the world as ”to be controlled“ (niyamya ), and so gives the decisive impulse for the development of the teachings which, following Ramanuja, understand the eternal vibhuti as ”substance“. The closing section is an attempt to summarize the development of these teachings and to interpret them through hermeneutics of religion.