A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
Veṅkaṭanātha (also known as Vedānta Deśika) quotes relatively often from Buddhist texts, especially from Pramāṇavāda ones (as was possibly customary within Indian philosophical circles. Does it mean that he could still directly access Pramāṇavāda texts? Or does he depend on Continue reading Veṅkaṭanātha’s Buddhist quotes
I was glad to see that Amod Lele had published an article in The Journal of Buddhist Ethics expressing some of the central conclusions of his dissertation. The article, “The Compassionate Gift of Vice: Śāntideva on Gifts, Altruism and Poverty” Continue reading Comment on Lele’s “The Compassionate Gift of Vice” (Journal of Buddhist Ethics Vol 20. 2013).
Imagination is a topic of ubiquitous, varied and profoundly existentially significant philosophical reflection in the millennia-spanning heritages of South Asian thought. In the Brāhmiṇical traditions that grew out of the śramaṇa movements in ancient India, it was often conceived as Continue reading The Role of Imagination in Perception
Who are the opponents in Kumārila’s Ślokavārttika (henceforth ŚV), chapter on sentence-meaning? And did the ŚV set the standard for all further discussions on the topic?
I am fresh back from the “Buddhism and Social Justice” conference hosted by Leiden University, The Netherlands. This will be the first in what I hope will be a number of posts in the coming weeks about individual papers and Continue reading Trusting our sources: manuscripts, archaeology, and what we “cannot know”
Who invented the apoha theory? If you, like me, are prone to answer “Dignāga” and to add that Dignāga (as shown by Hattori) was inspired by Bhartṛhari’s theory and that Dharmakīrti and Dharmottara later fine-tuned Dignāga’s one, you are ready Continue reading Who invented the apoha theory? On Kunjunni Raja 1986
Who is the most productive scholar on Indian Philosophy? Kei Kataoka is surely in the top-10 (have a look at his publications here).
A series of reflections and notes around the relationship between Buddhism and the political category of the Empire. * The most superficial survey on Buddhist political ideas through history will immediately reveal that the favourite political system of Buddhism is Continue reading Buddhism and Empire (1)
The term tuccha means in Classical Sanksrit “worthless”, “insignificant”. In Vedānta, however, it gets a more specific technical meaning, to denote the absolute unreality of chimeral entities, such as the khapuṣpa (flower in the air), which will not and cannot Continue reading What is unreal?
A strange coincidence surprised me as I designed this spring’s course in Indian philosophy – but one that I suspect is quite significant. The coincidence resulted from three of my primary concerns in selecting content for the course syllabus, and Continue reading The accidental Gītā