Before the Reign of Realism

The papers in this issue were first presented at the 48th annual conference on South Asia at Madison, Wisconsin.The purpose of the panel was to bring needed scholarly attention to the Vedāntic 'realism' attributed to Madhva (c.1238-1317)-so termed for its rejection of Śaṅkara's monistic 'idealism.'Madhva's Vedānta has had an enormous impact on religious, cultural, and political life in southern India and the Deccan.But the quantity of critical scholarship on the movement's history is nearly inversely proportional to its importance.If there was ever a "reign of realism," as R. Nagaraja Sarma's provocatively titled 1937 book on Madhva's philosophy proclaimed, we know remarkably little about how it came to be.The four papers in this issue are intended not as the final word, but as the beginning of a sustained and collaborative conversation about this important and under-studied religious and philosophical system.Compared to the progenitors of other Vedāntas, Madhva was an especially prolific and imaginative writer.In addition to his commentaries on the Ṛg Veda, the Mahābhārata, and numerous essays, songs, and ritual manuals, Madhva authored four commentaries on the Vedāntasūtras.The term 'commentary' is hardly sufficient to express the innovations he brought to these works.He not only used them to promote radically new solutions to long-running Vedāntic questions, but also as surrogates for his own self-styled messianic authority.Yet important as Madhva's writings are in their own right, one cannot speak of 'Mādhva Vedānta' without the movement's early evangelizers, systematizers, and institution builders.These early figures brought order to Madhva's chaotic writings.They selected and harmonized key kernels of his thought and nurtured them into a coherent system of philosophy and liberation.As Valerie Stoker's paper in this issue shows, these early figures were also instrumental in

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