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Vedānta: A Survey of Recent Scholarship (II) Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2024-01-18
Abstract This article surveys recent work on Vedānta, focusing on English-language secondary scholarship since the year 2000. The article consists of two parts. The first part (published previously) identified trends within recent scholarship, highlighting several promising areas of new research: the social history of Vedānta, Vedānta in the early modern period, vernacular Vedānta, Persian Vedānta
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Contradiction, Negation, and the Catus. ṣko.tṭi: Just Several Passages from Dharmapāla’s Commentary on Āryadeva’s Catuh.ḥśataka Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2024-01-02
Abstract Using logic-laden terms to translate and interpret what the ancient Indian Buddhist thinkers said when we are not sure what they spoke about when they spoke about ‘contradictions’, etc. in natural languages can sometimes make things frustrating. Keeping in mind Wittgenstein’s exhortation, “don’t think, but look!”, I approach the issues of contradiction, negation, and the catuṣkoṭi via case-by-case
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Discerning Philosophy in the Uttarāmnāya Liturgies of the Newars Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-12-25 Pongsit Pangsrivongse
Although the Kaula literature of the Newars did not give rise to a systematic philosophical school like that of their Kashmiri counterparts, I will argue in this article that philosophical thinking can be detected in Newar ritual texts. I do this by translating and analysing the unpublished Kālīsūtra, an important hymn found in Newar Uttarāmnāya liturgies whose transmission and composition will also
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Vedānta: A Survey of Recent Scholarship (I) Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-10-12 Michael S. Allen
This article surveys recent work on Vedānta, focusing on English-language secondary scholarship since the year 2000. The article consists of two parts. The first part (published here) identifies trends within recent scholarship, highlighting several promising areas of new research: the social history of Vedānta, Vedānta in the early modern period, vernacular Vedānta, Persian Vedānta, colonial and post-colonial
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The Problem of Yogācāra Idealism Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-09-27 Fabien Muller
Is Yogācāra a system of idealist metaphysics or a theory of experience without metaphysical commitments? An increasing amount of literature has argued, since the 1980s, in favor of the second answer. In this paper, I propose to review the background to the question. In fact, most of the attempts to answer the question have been made with reference to Buddhist texts and concepts. However, labels such
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Yāska’s Theory of Meaning: An Overlooked Episode in the History of Semantics in India Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-09-25 Paolo Visigalli
This paper aims to recover the ideas about semantics that are contained in Yāska’s Nirukta (c. 6–3 century BCE), the seminal work of the Indian tradition of nirvacana or etymology. It argues that, within the framework of his etymological project, Yāska developed consistent and sophisticated ideas relating to semantics—what I call his theory of meaning. It shows that this theory assumes the form of
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Who Identifies with the Aggregates? Philosophical Implications of the Selected Khandha Passages in the Nikāyas Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-09-09 Grzegorz Polak
In this paper, I discuss some philosophical problems connected with the notion of regarding the aggregates (khandha) as self in the Nikāyas. In particular, I focus on the attitude represented by the formula “I am this” (esohamasmi) which may be labeled as that of identifying with the aggregates. In the first part of the paper, I point out and analyze certain similes contained in the Nikāyas which may
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The Conundrum of Kundakunda’s Status in the Digambara Tradition Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-09-02 Jayandra Soni
Kundakunda’s handling of several basic ideas cannot be omitted when one deals with the following concepts in Jaina philosophy: 1. Syāt/siya, syādvāda or saptabhaṅgī. 2. Nayas, vyavahāra and niścaya nayas and nayavāda. 3. Sapta and Nava tattvas/padārtha and 4. Anekāntavāda. No doubt his dates are a major conundrum; recent research regards him to have lived around the fourth or fifth centuries (Brill’s
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Dharmakīrtian Inference Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-07-20 Szymon Bogacz, Koji Tanaka
Dharmakīrti argues that there is no pramāṇa (valid means of cognition or source of knowledge) for a thesis that is a self-contradiction (svavacanavirodha). That is, self-contradictions such as ‘everything said is false’ and ‘my mother is barren’ cannot be known to be true or false. The contemporary scholar Tillemans challenges Dharmakīrti by arguing that we can know that self-contradictions are false
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Defining a Meṇḍaka Question in the Questions of Milinda and Its Commentarial Texts Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-07-11 Eng Jin Ooi, Andrew Schumann, Natchapol Sirisawad
The word meṇḍaka, a derivative of meṇḍa (“ram”), is generally translated as “made of the ram” or “about the ram” or “horned.” However, in the Pāli Milindapañha (Questions of Milinda), the word meṇḍakapañha, literally, a question about the ram, is also rendered as a logical conclusion that refutes an imaginary dilemma. Hence, in this treatise, the word meṇḍaka is a special logical term which means an
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What are the “Purposes” of Buddhist Sūtras? From Vasubandhu’s Logic of Exegesis (Vyākhyāyukti) Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-06-24 Toshio Horiuchi
As its name implies, Vasubandhu’s Vyākhyāyukti (VyY) explains the logic or methodology (yukti) of exegesis or sūtra interpretation (vyākhyā) and only survives in a Tibetan translation. In recent years, research on this treatise has been gradually accumulating. However, due to the difficulty of the Tibetan translation, some of the arguments therein have been misunderstood. In this article, after reviewing
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Silence and Contradiction in the Jaina Saptabhaṅgī Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-06-23 Chris Rahlwes
Abstract The Jaina saptabhaṅgī (seven angles of analysis or types of sentences) has drawn the attention of non-classical logicians due to its unique use of negation, contradiction, and avaktavya (‘unutterable’). In its most basic structure, the saptabhaṅgī appears as: (i) in a certain sense, P; (ii) in a certain sense, not P; (iii) in a certain sense, P and not P; (iv) in a certain sense, inexpressibility
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Candrakīrti on the Use and Misuse of the Chariot Argument Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-06-15 Dhivan Thomas Jones
The publication in 2015 (ed. Li) of Chap. 6 of the rediscovered Sanskrit text of Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra (MA) allows us to witness more directly Candrakīrti’s careful and deliberate critique of the ‘chariot argument’ for the merely conventional existence of the self in Indian Abhidharmic thought. I argue that in MA 6.140–141, Candrakīrti alludes to the use of the chariot argument in the Milindapañha
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Insight and Ascertainment: The Meditation of Vipaśyanā in Kamalaśīla’s Philosophy of Mind Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-27 Karl Schmid
In a triad of practice manuals collectively titled The Process of Meditation (Bhāvanākrama I, II, III), the eight century Indian Buddhist philosopher Kamalaśīla singles out vipaśyanā (insight meditation) to be of particular importance on the early stages of the Buddhist path. This paper provides a reconstruction of vipaśyanā based on how it is depicted in that work. I make two primary claims. First
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A Critical Examination of Nāgārjuna’s Argument on Motion Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-23 Mainak Pal
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Sām.ṃkhya’s Challenge to the Buddhist Claim of the Identity of a Pramān.ṇa and Its Result Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-20 Ołena Łucyszyna
Sāṃkhya, in its commentary Yuktidīpikā, responds to the Buddhist claim that a means of valid cognition (pramāṇa) and a valid cognition (pramā), its result (phala), are identical. The response of Sāṃkhya was pioneering: it is one of the two earliest responses to the Buddhists in the lively polemic on the relationship between a pramāṇa and its result. (The other of these two earliest responses is in
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The Meaning of Identity Between Nirvān.ṇa and Samṁsāra in Nāgārjuna Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-18 Taesoo Kim
This research attempts to evaluate the hermeneutic characteristics of catuṣkoṭi (tetralemma) in the ‘Nirvāṇa’ Chapter of the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā (Ch. 25), focusing on the identity thesis between nirvāṇa and saṃsāra. Regarding the structure of the tetralemma posited by Nāgārjuna (ca. 150-ca. 250), this study criticizes the dialectical interpretation of Robinson and Kajiyama from the perspective of
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Abhiniveśa Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-11 Frederick M. Smith
Abhiniveśa appears in Yogasūtras (YS) 2.9 as the designation of the last of the five kleśas or afflictions listed in YS 2.3. This paper will examine four questions: What is the deep history of the word abhiniveśa? What were the historical sources of Patañjali’s term? Does it have a meaning in the YS distinct from the explanation given by Vyāsa in his commentary on this sūtra, which is followed with
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Reevaluating Dignāga’s Apoha Theory: As Revealed by Bhāviveka’s Critique Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-05-08 Long Yin Sin
Pramāṇavādins are antirealists on the problem of universals by virtue of the fact that they deny the existence of real universals. Dignāga, therefore, offered apoha theory to explain how the denotation of objects is possible without postulating real universals. According to Apohavāda, a word, for instance “cow”, denotes a cow not by referring to a real universal “cowness,” but by excluding it from
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Confronting the Truth: Epistemological Conflicts between Early Buddhists and Jains Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-04-29 J. Noel Hubler
The lay follower Citta’s debate with Mahāvīra in the Nigaṇṭha Sutta reflects not just simple polemic, but a fundamental epistemological division between Early Jains and Buddhists. A close reading of the Ācārāṅga Sūtra shows that the Jains see the truth as a property of the self-knowing purified soul that knows all things. For the Buddhists, consciousness is conditioned and dependent. If truth is a
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Jaina Narrative Refutations of Kumārila: Relative Chronology and the History of Jaina-Mīmām.sā Dialogues Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-03-18 Seema K. Chauhan
Assigning a date to Kumārila is notoriously difficult. Kumārila’s dates are usually assigned through a relative chronology of Brahmanical and Buddhist philosophers with whom Kumārila engages or is engaged. This is a precarious method because the dates of these interlocutors are equally unstable. But what if in considering systematic dialogues (śāstra) to be the primary medium for interreligious philosophical
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Why is Every Living Being a Tathāgatagarbha? A Translation of the Twenty-Seventh Verse of the First Chapter in the Ratnagotravibhāga Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-02-23 Jeson Woo
In modern Buddhist scholarship, J. Takasaki’s English and Japanese translations of the Ratnagotravibhāga in 1966 and 1989 have been read as an exemplary one until now without any meaningful revision. This paper critically reviews his translations of the twenty-seventh verse in the first chapter of the work, which explicates the key doctrine in the Tathāgatagarbha thought that every living being is
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Śālikanātha on Absence in the Pramān.ṇapārāyan.ṇa: An Introduction and Translation Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-02-18 Jack Beaulieu
This is a brief philosophical introduction to, and an annotated translation of, the section on absence from Śālikanātha’s Pramāṇapārāyaṇa (Study of the Instruments of Knowledge), a foundational work of Prābhākara epistemology. In this section, which focuses on the epistemology of absence, Śālikanātha argues against the Bhāṭṭa view that there is a sui generis instrument of knowledge (pramāṇa) by which
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The Search for Definitions in Early Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-01-13 Nilanjan Das
The search for definitions is ubiquitous in Sanskrit philosophy. In many texts across traditions, we find philosophers presenting their theories by laying down definitions of key theoretical categories, by testing those definitions, and by refuting competing definitions of the same theoretical categories. Call this the method of definitions. The aim of this essay is to explore a challenge that arises
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The jāti in the Mādhyamika – Different Approaches between Bhāviveka and Candrakīrti Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2023-01-10 Motoi Ono
Kajiyama has argued that the basis for the concept of jāti (false rejoinder) as described in the Nyāyasūtra is the concept xiang ying (相応) as found in the Fangbian xin lun (方便心論). Kajiyama has also shown that the sophistic arguments called xiang ying are very similar to the prasaṅga arguments of Nāgārjuna, the founder of the Madhyamaka school. It thus seems worthwhile to investigate how later Mādhyamika
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Notes on the satipat.t.hānas in the Vibhan.ga Mūlat.īkā Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-12-26 Giuliano Giustarini
The Vibhaṅga Mūlaṭīkā, attributed to Ānanda, is a sub-commentary of one of the seven books of the Pāli Abhidhamma-piṭaka, the Vibhaṅga, and the direct commentary of its commentary, Buddhaghosa’s Sammohavinodanī. In the section on the satipaṭṭhāna method, Ānanda proposes exegetical strategies to solve some seeming contradiction between Buddhaghosa’s interpretation of the Vibhaṅga and the Sutta’s framework
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A Grammarian’s View of Negation: Nāgeśa’s Paramalaghumañjūs.ā on Nañartha Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-11-22 John J. Lowe, James W. Benson
The theory of negation developed in the grammatical-philosophical system of later Vyākaraṇa remains almost entirely unstudied, despite its close links with the (widely studied) approaches to negation found in other philosophical schools such as Nyāya and Mīmāṃsā, and despite its consequent importance for a comprehensive understanding of the theory of negation in ancient India. In this paper we present
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Action, Intention, and Negligence: Manu and Medhātithi on Mental States and Blame Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-11-05 Emily Baron, Elisa Freschi
This paper aims to offer a preliminary explication of the role of and the relation between mental states, action, and blame in Medhātithi’s commentary on the most influential juridical text of the Sanskrit world – the jurisprudential text attributed to Manu. In defining what it means to act and what constitutes engaging in intentional and unintentional action, this paper makes three claims. First,
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Maheśa Chandra’s Exposition of the Navya-Nyāya Concept of “Cognition” (jñāna) from the Perspective of Inquisitive Logic Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-11-03 Eberhard Guhe
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Structure and Authorship of the KusumÀ·jali Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-10-30 Ferenc Ruzsa
This paper suggests that the classic of Indian theology, the Nyāya-kusumâñjali is in fact two texts: an earlier treatise in 65 ślokas, and Udayana’s (mostly prose) commentary on it. Internal evidence consists in: (a) the ślokas read as a continuous text; (b) there are extremely long prose passages without verses; (c) Udayana does not comment on his own verses, only on the ślokas; (d) the basic plan
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Logic and language in Indian religions Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-10-21 Johannes Bronkhorst
This article concentrates on certain beliefs that many Indian thinkers implicitly accepted and that show up in an analysis of reasoned arguments they presented. These beliefs concerned the relationship between language and reality. For Brahmanical thinkers, who owed their privileged position in society in great part to their mastery of texts — the Veda — that were deemed to be directly connected to
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Evaluating the Reliability of an Authoritative Discourse in a Jain Epistemological Eulogy of the 6th c. Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-10-12 Marie-Hélène Gorisse
This paper explores the coexistence of more apologetic and of more systematic considerations in the Āpta-mīmāṁsā (ĀMī), Investigation on authority, of the Jain author Samantabhadra (530–590). First, this treatise offers a relevant case study to investigate the transition from a conception in which the reliability criterion of an authoritative discourse is the authoritative character of its utterer
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The Logics of Counterinference and the “Additional Condition” (upādhi) in Gaṅgeśa’s Defense of the Nyāya Theistic Inference from Effects Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-09-29 Stephen Phillips
This paper is taken from a long section of the Tattva-cintā-maṇi by Gaṅgeśa that is devoted to proving the existence of—to use an inadequate word—“God” in a somewhat minimalist sense. The īśvara, the “Lord,” is for Gaṅgeśa, following Nyāya predecessors, a divine agent, a self, responsible for much, not all, of the order in the world. Unseen Force, adṛṣṭa, which is in effect karman made by human action
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The Senses of Performance and the Performance of the Senses: The Case of the Dharmabhāṇaka’s Body Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-09-28 Natalie Gummer
In the “Chapter on the Benefits to the Performer of the Dharma” (dharmabhāṇakānuśaṁsāparivartaḥ) in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Lotus Sūtra), the Buddha proclaims the many remarkable transformations that will take place in the six sense faculties of the performer of the dharma (dharmabhāṇaka). An analysis of this chapter clarifies both the sūtra’s normative vision for the performance of the dharmabhāṇaka
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Some Remarks on the Apparent Absence of a priori Reasoning in Indian Philosophy Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-09-28 John Taber
This essays considers the hypothesis that Indian epistemology does not clearly recognize, let alone emphasize, an intellectual faculty that apprehends intelligible things, such as essences or “truths of reason,” or elevate knowledge of such things to a status higher than that of sense perception. Evidence for this hypothesis from various sources, including Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, and Buddhist logic-epistemological
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Logic in the Religions of South Asia Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-09-14 Piotr Balcerowicz, Brendan Gillon
This special issue of Journal of Indian Philosophy results from a thematic session on “Logic in the Religions of South Asia”, a separate section of the 2nd World Congress on Logic and Religion (held at the University of Warsaw, Poland, June 18–22 June, 2017). The papers address questions, discussed in philosophical thought in classical India, such as how religious practice could shape philosophical
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Liquid Language: The Art of Bitextual Sermons in Middle Cambodia Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-09-09 Trent Walker
Theravada Buddhist sermons in palm-leaf manuscript collections in South and Southeast Asia are frequently bilingual, including portions in the classical language of Pali and a local vernacular, such as Burmese, Sinhala, or Thai. These bilingual sermons prove to be ideal subjects for exploring how Buddhist scriptures function as kinetic, interactive processes of performance and reception. This paper
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Thinking About the Study of Buddhist Texts: Ideas from Jerusalem, in More Ways Than One Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-08-30 Jonathan A. Silk
Many issues are raised by thinking about “The Idea of Text in Buddhism.” This paper concentrates on scriptures of Indian Buddhism, and considers some of the questions raised or inspired by the papers presented at the 2019 Jerusalem conference on “The Idea of Text in Buddhism.” Consideration is given among other topics to multilingualism, in which context a comparison is offered with the traditions
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Art and Performance in the Buddhist Visual Narratives at Bhārhut Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-06-16 Pia Brancaccio
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Flowers Perfume Sesame: On the Contextual Shift of Perfuming from Abhidharma to Yogācāra Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-05-31 Mingyuan Gao
In the Abhidharma texts, that flowers perfume sesame is used as a simile describing the mechanism of perfuming (vāsanā/paribhāvanā) in the context of meditative cultivation. According to the Sarvāstivādins, the meditative perfuming requires the co-existence of the perfumer and the perfumed. In comparison, the Yogācāra-vijñānavādins employ the same simile to explain their doctrine of the perfuming of
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Saṅghabhadra’s and Śubhagupta’s Defence of Atomism, Their Similarities and Differences Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-05-26 Yufan Mao
As Buddhist externalists, both Saṅghabhadra and Śubhagupta claim the existence of an external object on the basis of atomism. In this paper, I will show the interrelationship between Saṅghabhadra’s and Śubhagupta’s atomic theories. Regarding the ontological status of the aggregation of atoms, both of them agree on a Vaibhāṣika principle that the aggregation of atoms, as a real substance, can serve
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On the function of saṁhitā in the Saṁhitā Upaniṣad Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-05-25 Stephanie A. Majcher
The Saṁhitā Upaniṣad [SU] is a little-known Vedic text that presents ‘typical’ Upaniṣadic teachings on the truth of identity alongside seemingly out-of-place descriptions of rites used to protect oneself against enemies and even against death. The difference between these contents is striking, but what it has to tell us about the SU’s main concerns is vulnerable to historical and text critical methods
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The Ocean of Yoga: An Unpublished Compendium Called the Yogārṇava Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-05-07 S. V. B. K. V. Gupta, Jason Birch
The Yogārṇava (‘the ocean of yoga’) is a Sanskrit compendium on yoga that has not been published, translated or even mentioned in secondary literature on yoga. Citations attributed to it occur in several premodern commentaries and compendiums on yoga, and a few published library catalogues report manuscripts of a work on yoga called the Yogārṇava. This article presents the results of the first academic
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Bhaṭṭa Jayanta on Epistemic Complexity Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-04-20 Whitney Cox
This essay seeks to characterize one of the leading ideas in Bhaṭṭa Jayanta's Nyāyamañjarī, the fundamental role that the idea of complexity plays in its theory of knowledge. The appeal to the causally complex nature of any event of valid awareness is framed as a repudiation of the lean ontology and epistemology of the Buddhist theorists working in the tradition of Dharmakīrti; for Jayanta, this theoretical
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Frozen Sandhi, Flowing Sound: Permanent Euphonic Ligatures and the Idea of Text in Classical Pali Grammars Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-04-07 Aleix Ruiz-Falqués
Pali classical grammars reflect a specific idea of what Pali Buddhist texts are. According to this traditional idea, texts are mainly conceived as sound and therefore the initial portions of every grammar deal with sound and sound ligature or sandhi. Sandhi in Pali does not work as systematically as it does in Sanskrit and therefore Pali grammarians have struggled with the optionality of many of their
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Killing as Orthodoxy, Exegesis as Apologetics: The Animal Sacrifice in the Manubhāṣya of Medhātithi Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-04-02 Liwen Liu
Deeply rooted in the Vedic tradition, animal sacrifice is a controversial issue associated with a larger discourse of violence and non-violence in South Asia. Most existent studies on Vedic killing focus on the polemics of ritual violence in six schools of Indian philosophy. However, insufficient attention has been paid to killing in Dharmaśāstric literature, the killing that is an indispensable element
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Nāgārjuna’s Negation Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-03-05 Chris Rahlwes
The logical analysis of Nāgārjuna’s (c. 200 CE) catuṣkoṭi (tetralemma or four-corners) has remained a heated topic for logicians in Western academia for nearly a century. At the heart of the catuṣkoṭi, the four corners’ formalization typically appears as: A, Not A (¬A), Both (A &¬A), and Neither (¬[A∨¬A]). The pulse of the controversy is the repetition of negations (¬) in the catuṣkoṭi. Westerhoff
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Meditation, Idealism and Materiality: Vivid Visualization in the Buddhist ‘Qizil Yoga Manual’ and the Context of Caves Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-02-25 Karen O’Brien-Kop
This paper examines the topic of Yogācāra idealism through a little studied Buddhist meditation manual, the so-called ‘Yogalehrbuch’ or ‘Qizil Yoga Manual’, a primarily Buddhist Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma text with Mahāyāna Yogācāra strands. What does this unique Central Asian text say about Buddhist meditation practices called yogācāra or yoga? It centres on methods of vivid visualization that are somewhat
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Nothing but Gold. Complexities in Terms of Non-difference and Identity. Part 3. Permanence, Properties Plexuses and Subtleties in Mutual Exclusion Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-02-21 Alberto Anrò
This paper investigates Vācaspati Miśra’s remarkably complex argumentative architecture in support of non-difference by means of a microsimulation model, the classical gold-crown case. A full range of positions, including instantaneism, transformative continuum, indeterminate common basis reference, difference and non-difference coordination, etc., is put under the scrutiny of the Vācaspati Miśra’s
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Is Word-Meaning Denoted or Remembered? Śālikanātha’s Cornerstone in Defence of Anvitābhidhāna Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-27 Shishir Saxena
The role of memory in one’s cognition of sentential meaning is a pivotal topic in Indian philosophical debates on the nature of language. The Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṃsakas claim in their doctrine of abhihitānvaya that words denote word-meanings which in turn lead one to sentential meaning, with memory playing only a limited role in this process. The Prābhākara Mīmāṃsakas however assign memory a central role and
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The Kinpusen Himitsuden: Text as a Kaleidoscope of Ritual Platforms Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-30 Yagi Morris
This article explores the narrative potency and ritual efficacy of a medieval Japanese esoteric Buddhist text in relation to the process of awakening and the construction of imperial legitimation, perceived as two interrelated objectives. Entitled the Kinpusen himitsuden, ‘The Secret Transmission of the Golden Peak’, the text was written by the Shingon monk Monkan Kōshin in 1337, soon after the outbreak
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Bending Minds and Winning Hearts: On the Rhetorical Uses of Complexity in Mahāyāna Sūtras Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-28 Paul Harrison
Mahāyāna sūtras are obviously texts in the conventional sense of the word, but how they work as texts, the purposes they serve, and the manner in which they are constructed have so far attracted comparatively little sustained theoretical attention of the sort that goes beyond specific examples. This paper addresses itself to two well-known formal features of this voluminous genre which have yet to
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Early Buddhist Texts: Their Composition and Transmission Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-26 Mark Allon
This article discusses the composition and transmission of early Buddhist texts with specific reference to sutras. After briefly summarizing the main reasons why it is likely that these oral compositions were designed to be memorized and transmitted verbatim, I will discuss the main types of changes that these texts underwent in the course of their transmission and the reasons such changes occurred
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The Marvel of Consciousness: Existence and Manifestation in Jñānaśrīmitra’s Sākārasiddhiśāstra Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-23 Tomlinson, Davey K.
This paper considers Jñānaśrīmitra’s defense of manifestation (prakāśa) as the criterion of ultimate existence (paramārthasat). In the first section, "Asatkhyāti and Adhyavasāya: making sense of manifestation as the criterion of the real", I show the way that, in response to Ratnākaraśānti’s Nirākāravāda, Jñānaśrīmitra argues for a sharp distinction between manifestation and determination (adhyavasāya)
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Fragments from the Ājīvikas Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-22 Balcerowicz, Piotr
The paper examines available references to the Ājīvikas that are often identified by scholars, notably by Basham (1951), as genuine quotations from Ājīvikas’ lost works. In addition, the paper analyses some additional material not previously indentifed as possible quotations relevant to Ājīvikism. Unfortunately, none of such references seem to be genuinely derived from an Ājīvika source: All of such
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The Increasing Importance of the Physical Body in Early Medieval Haṭhayoga: A Reflection on the Yogic Body in Liberation Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-18 Shalev, Hagar
One defining feature of the Hindu religious worldviews is a belief in the impermanence of the body and its perception as a source of suffering due to a misguided attachment of the self to its corporeal manifestation. This view is expressed in several important traditions, including classical yoga, which perceives the physical body as an impediment to attaining liberation and irrelevant in the state
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On the Early Buddhist Attitude Toward Metaphysics Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-16 Lin, Qian
Buddhist scholars in the West broadly agree with the proposition that Buddhism has a philosophical tradition, in many respects comparable to Western ones, while many claim that it also has a practical or empirical dimension that Western philosophies, especially the analytic tradition, lack. There is also a scholarly consensus that an implicit metaphysical system serves as the foundation for the doctrines
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The Gotra Theory in the Madhyāntavibhāgaṭīkā Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2022-01-10 Delhey, Martin
The Yogācāra school of Buddhism is well known for maintaining that the sentient beings are divided by nature according to five different spiritual dispositions (gotra). These five spiritual dispositions are established as a pentad and explained in one of Xuanzang’s Chinese translations, but the Indian origin of the pertinent textual passage is debated. In the introductory part of this paper, it is
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Naming the Seventh Consciousness in Yogācāra Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2021-11-10 Cao, Yan
The Yogācāra School presents the seventh consciousness as the internal mental faculty of the sixth consciousness. According to the Hīnayāna tradition, the internal faculty is called manas, so the complete compound word referring to the seventh consciousness is manovijñāna. Thus, in the Yogācāra system the seventh and sixth consciousnesses are both named manovijñāna. In order to resolve the confusion
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The Play of Formulas in the Early Buddhist Discourses Journal of Indian Philosophy Pub Date : 2021-11-01 Shulman, Eviatar
The play of formulas is a new theory designed to explain the manner in which discourses (Suttas, Sūtras) were composed in the early Buddhist tradition, focusing at present mainly on the Dīgha- and Majjhima- Nikāyas (the collections of the Buddha’s Long and Middle-length discourses). This theory combats the commonly accepted views that texts are mainly an attempt to record and preserve the Buddha’s