A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
What does jñāpaka mean? Literally it means ‘what causes to know’ and if you have been working on Sanskrit śāstra you will most probably immediately think of Sanskrit Grammar. Patañjali uses this term in this sense of “an indirect or Continue reading Jñāpaka in Sanskrit and Pāli Grammar
In an article available open access online (thanks for this altruistic move, Amod!), Amod recently discussed a challenging topic, namely whether there is a link between metaphysical issues and ethics in Buddhist philosophy. More precisely, he focused on Śāntideva’s* Bodhicāryāvatāra Continue reading Amod Lele on Śāntideva and the impact of metaphysics on ethics
Is Īśvara in the Yogasūtra/Pātañjalayogaśāstra just the model of a puruṣa who has realised its being separated from nature? Or is He an omnipotent (and perhaps compassionate) God?
Was Rāmānuja the first author of the Vedāntisation of the current(s) which later became well-known as Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta? Possibly yes. But, one might suggest that there are many Upaniṣadic quotations also in Yāmuna’s Ātmasiddhi and that Rāmānuja’s Śrībhāṣya seems to Continue reading How Vedāntic was Yāmuna?
If you work on Indian Philosophy in North America, you are probably in a department of Religious Studies (or of Philosophy, or of South Asian Studies), you are a member of the RISA newsletter, attend the annual AAR conference (perhaps Continue reading A plea for more mutual knowledge and cooperation among scholars
A reader (Robert Gressis) asked me to give him some advice for a class on philosophy of religion in which he would (admirably) like to insert something more than “the typical western philosophy of religion”. He would be interested in Continue reading Ultimate reality in Hinduism, Buddhism (etc.): Some suggestions for a possible syllabus
Why does a devotee love God? Because He is good, merciful, omniscient…? Or just out of love? This seems to be one of the moot issues between the two currents within the form of Vaiṣṇavism later to be known as Continue reading Loving God for no reason
In the last week, two students have asked me about the distinction between jñā- and vid- and this made me think that it might be worth adding a new section to Andrew’s collaborative enterprise (see here and here) of mapping Continue reading Keywords: jnā– and vid–
Well, yes… isn’t it? The problem is less easy than it may look like and amounts to the problem of non-committal understanding. Is it the normal attitude while listening to a speaker or just an exception or an a posteriori Continue reading Can one understand a sentence without believing its content to be the case?
This week on Sunday will start the next World Sanskrit Conference. Among the contributors and regular commenters of this blog, several are going to be there, such as Jason Birch, Daniele Cuneo, Evgeniya Desnitskaya, Camillo Formigatti, Andrew Ollett, Agnieszka Rostalska Continue reading The World Sanskrit Conference is approaching…