Deepak Sarma explores the philosophical foundations of Madhva Vedanta and then presents translations of actual debates between the Madhva and Advaita schools of Vedanta, thus positioning readers at the centre of the 700 year-old controversy between these two schools of Vedanta. Original texts of Madhvacarya are included in an appendix, in translation and in Sanskrit.
Deepak Sarma, an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Case Western Reserve University, (http://www.case.edu/artsci/rlgn//sarma/SarmaHP.htm) has published in Indian philosophy, Hindu studies, method and theory in the study of religion, and bioethics. He has pursued ethnographic work and has produced several documentaries on Hindu rituals and practices. He recently as a guest curator of Indian Kalighat Paintings, an exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which ran from May 1 until Sept. 18, 2011 (http://www.clevelandart.org/visit/Exhibitions.aspx)
Sarma's interest in Indian Philosophy first began when he was an undergraduate at Reed College (http://www.reed.edu/) in Portland Oregon. As he often says, "That's when the bus came by and I got on. That's when it all began..." His pursuits eventually led him to study the Madhva tradition of Vedanta at Reed and at the Divinity School at the University of Chicago (http://divinity.uchicago.edu/) and in India, at the Purnaprajna Samshodana Mandiram (http://www.poornaprajna.com/) in Bangalore. During this journey he has written a column in the Indian Express, danced all night in Barcelona, broken his skull while rock climbing, ridden a camel in the Thar desert, gotten married to a lovely lady, visited Angkor Wat, won a teaching award at CWRU (http://blog.case.edu/case-news/2007/05/10/sarma), benched his body weight using free weights, and became the father of two beautiful children.
Though it is not clear how, Deepak functions on very little sleep.
Sarma is currently directing a South Asia Initiative at Case Western Reserve University in the hopes of drawing attention to to draw attention to South Asia and South Asian Studies ( http://www.case.edu/artsci/southasia/).
Sarma in enjoying being a Huff Post Blogger (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-sarma) among other things.
