Studies in Srivaishnavism by Mangalam R. Parameswaran: Journal of Vaishnava Studies

Abstract

M. R. Parameswaran, a retired professor of Mathematics, has an M.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Manitoba, where he studied with Klaus Klostermaier. K. Sivaraman (of McMaster Univ.) was an examiner for the thesis which, with some developments, is the basis for Studies in Srivaishnavism. Despite the learning evident in the book, in the preface Parameswaran places himself at some distance from the tradition he studies: “Neither by birth nor by formal conversion am I a Ûrîvaiß∫ava. My approach has been that of a serious student with Western academic training. I did not set out to defend any [of] the tradition’s views, though I might have ended by showing that many of them are correct.”