Mataparīkṣottara, also called Mataparīkṣottaram, is an 1840 Sanskrit-language text by Harachandra Tarkapanchanan (IAST: Hara-candra Tarka-pañcānana) of Calcutta, British India.
[3] In the short English-language introduction to his book, Harachandra displays a near-agnostic attitude, declaring that it impossible to prove a claimed revelation as true or false: the founder of a religion claims to have received the word of the god, the first believers trust him because they revere him, and each succeeding group of believers subscribe to the faith more blindly.
[5] He refers to Western freethinkers (such as David Hume, Thomas Paine, and Voltaire), stating that they proved the Christian priests wrong.
The work was translated into Bengali language, and appeared in serial form in the Calcutta newspaper Prabhakara, with recommendations from leading Hindu citizens.
[5] Within a few months, 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".
[19] An unidentified British "gentleman" admonished Harachandra in three sermons delivered at the Christ Church in Cornwallis Square, Calcutta.
[2] Banerjea accused Harachandra of not adhering to "the rules of common courtesy", and criticized his assertions as "glaringly incorrect, absurd, utterly subversive of all religion".