| Mataparīkṣā | |
| Author: | John Muir |
| Title Orig: | मत-परीक्षा |
| Orig Lang Code: | sa |
| Country: | British India |
| Language: | Sanskrit |
| Subject: | Criticism of Hinduism |
| Genre: | non-fiction |
| Pub Date: | 1839 |
Mata-parīkṣā is a Sanskrit-language text by the Christian author John Muir. It criticizes Hinduism, and portrays Christianity as the true faith. It was written in British India in 1839, and revised twice.
As suggested by the title Mata-parīkṣā (Sanskrit for "An Examination of Religions"), Muir portrayed himself as an impartial judge of religions. William Hodge Mill criticized the text for discussing the Christian philosophy in isolation instead of encouraging the readers to get baptized and join the Church.
The book is written in form of a dialogue between a student and a teacher. The following is a synopsis of 1839 edition:
The student notes that various religions contradict each other, and therefore, not all of them can be true. The teacher explains that an intelligent person must analyze religions, accept the true one, and reject all others. He then describes the various attributes of the god.
The student asks if all believers conceive the God as omniscient, creator of everything etc. The teacher explains that many people follow religions that blaspheme God and worship other spirits, claiming that their scripture is divine.
The teacher describes the three characteristics of the true scriptures:
The teacher explains that only the scriptures of Christianity have the above-described characteristics, arguing that:
During this explanation, the teacher discusses various Christian doctrines such as the necessity of Jesus' incarnation, the Holy Spirit and the Heaven.
The teacher then explains that the Indian scriptures do not show the three characteristics of the true scriptures, arguing that:
In conclusion, the teacher states that he derives "no satisfaction from refuting other religions". He praises the "good qualities" of the Hindus (such as their poetry and grammatical sciences), but states that their religion is not true.
The text led to a controversy in British India, and Hindu pandits responded by writing apologist works critical of Muir's text:
Muir responded to Harachandra with a rebuttal in the Christian Intelligencer of Calcutta, titled "On the Arguments by which the Alleged Eternity of the Vedas May be Refuted". He also included some of these arguments in the 1840 edition of the Mataparīkṣā.
Another Hindu pandit, whose name is unknown, wrote a Hindi-language critique of Muir's third edition of Matapariksha (1852-1854). This critique was published in Dharmādharma-parīkṣā-patra (1861), a Hindi-language collection of correspondence between an anonymous British Christian missionary and some Hindus on the relative merits of Hinduism and Christianity. The Hindu pandit, who was a Vaishnava and probably a Bengali, derided Muir as a pakhandi ("heretic" or "infidel" in this context), and quoted Brhan-naradiya-purana verses instructing the Vaishnavas to execute unbelievers and blasphemers.