A group blog of scholars exploring Indian philosophy
[Cross-posted on Love of All Wisdom.] Late last year I was delighted to see a post from Richard Payne retracting his earlier post on “White Buddhism”, motivated at least in part by my critique. It is all too rare to Continue reading Farewell to “Yavanayāna”
In the context of epistemology and pramāṇa theory, we often translate śabda as “testimony.” It is reasonable to do so, since using “word” in sentences like “Word is a genuine source of knowledge” is unpleasant to the ear and confusing Continue reading Some thoughts on the terms śabda and “testimony”
In the second pariccheda of Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇālaṅkāra (1025 CE) titled śabdālaṅkāravivecanam, Bhoja defines at 2.138 the śabdālaṅkāra Adhyeyam (Śarmā and Paṇśīkar 1934:304): yadvidhau ca niṣedhe ca vyutpattereva kāraṇam tadadhyeyam vidustena lokayātrā pravartate Bhoja at Sarasvatīkaṇṭhābharaṇālaṅkāra 2.139 divides Adhyeyam into six subtypes-kāvya, Continue reading Bhoja’s comments on Adhyeyam–a Guest Post by Satyanarayana Hegde
Roy W. Perrett. An Introduction to Indian Philosophy. 249pp. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. $34.99 (paperback). When introducing the wide-range of Indian philosophy to a new audience, there have been two major approaches: the schools approach and the topics approach. Continue reading Book Review of An Introduction to Indian Philosophy by Roy W. Perrett (Reviewed by Matthew R. Dasti)
A bit of a last-minute announcement (which readers may have already seen elsewhere). A few months ago, Mrinal Kaul mentioned that Manipal University has established a new Center for Religious Studies and would be hosting a workshop on rasa theory. Continue reading Workshop on Rasa Theory: February 2017
[Cross-posted at Love of All Wisdom.] Does it matter whether something is or isn’t Buddhist? Or whether it is “distinctively” Buddhist? I was asked these related questions in two blog discussions from last year, both involving Justin Whitaker. Justin raised Continue reading Does it matter what we call Buddhist?
Let’s say Devadatta is going to a party and brings a bottle of wine. When he gets there, he finds that Yajñadatta has already arrived—and that Yajñadatta has brought a bottle of the exact same wine that Devadatta picked up. Continue reading Artha: Semantics versus Pragmatics
About a year ago, I teamed up with my colleague Omar Farahat to do a roundtable discussion on the topic of the normativity of language in Mīmāṃsā and Uṣūl al-fiqh. The occasion was the annual graduate student conference of Columbia’s Continue reading Mīmāṃsā and Uṣūl al-fiqh: On comparison
Over at the Language Log, Victor Mair has a post about spoken Sanskrit at the recent international workshop, “A Lasting Vision: Daṇḍin’s Mirror in the World of Asian Letters”. The workshop itself may be of interest to readers of this Continue reading Spoken Sanskrit and Daṇḍin
My title refers to a recent post on Language Log by Herb Terrace, which is a response to an article by Hauser et al. that appeared in Frontiers in Psychology last year. To review briefly: Hauser et al. argue that, Continue reading The origins of language: Akhaṇḍakhaṇḍanam