Just imagine you are asked about the three most important texts in South Asian philosophy and take a minute to imagine your answer. You are also allowed to include texts on South Asian philosophy, if you think they are relevant.
Next, you can compare your answers with those of scholars like Jonardon Ganeri, Maria Heim, Chakravarti Ram-Prasad and Evan Thompson. The guest, Phil Treagus, is a bibliophile and already hosted posts on the most important books on several topics in philosophy, including Chinese philosophy. A praiseworthy addition is that he also invited a young PhD student, Jack Beaulieu.
You are also welcome to add your lists in the comments.
How about texts that were important *for* Indian philosophy? I would count Euclid’s Axioms and Newton’s Principia as important texts *for* Western philosophy (while perhaps at the same being important texts *in* philosophy of mathematics and science). Did Ashtadhyayi serve as a model for the foundational sutra-style texts of Indian philosophy? Perhaps it could be seen as a seminal text *in* vyaakarana and Indian philosophy of language, while at the same time suggesting a way of doing and organizing philosophy that could be adopted as an aspirational model in other fields.
This is my reply from an amateur philosopher.
I hope you will bear with me.
I am a retired professor of mathematics from Chennai India.
My book for your bibliographical inclusion is the age old Tamil book
THIRUKKURAL.
I have tried to position it as an alternative thinking in Indian scene as compared to Vedic thinking.
Philosophy of peninsular India thirukkural aram.
It Is an English version of thirukkural which discusses the philosophy of ancient tamils, authored by me.
So far no one has bothered present thirukkural as a book of philosophy.
I have compared thirukkural with Bhagavad Gita and show the similarities and the variations between the two classics.
I am not in a position to send a copy of that book for your immediate reference as I am in India.
The book is available in Kindle store.
You can read the free portions of the book and then decide.
This is an attempt to present that thinking and philosophy of ancient tamils which was not recognised so far.
It is an important part of indology.
H.V.Visweswaran,
vichaan@gmail.com.