Essays in Indian Philosophy, Religion & Literature

It is a collection of essays in disciplines that are vital to the understanding of multiple approaches to reality in India. The issues discussed in the collection pertain to various aspects of Indian culture. Analysis of the Vedic pantheon is juxtaposed with comparative approaches to Indian mythology. Examination of different historical and textual layers of Vedic exegeses is enriched by reflection on Sanskrit epics and Puranas. Insightful pursuance of various semantic developments, combined with Bhartrhari’s Philosophy of language and complexities and paradoxes embedded in phraseology are interwoven with the question of rationality on the one hand, and philosophical discourse as reflected in Indian dialectical tradition and in the Vedantic hermeneutics, on the other with the issue of background. The section on Indian literature and poetics is arranged from Sanskrit kavya literature to medieval and modern Hindi poetry. Historical and social considerations of the concept of democracy an the so-called ‘republics’ in ancient India are included in a separate section on the Arthasastra. A report on Giuseppe Tucci’s collection of Sanskrit manuscripts, accompanied by two facsimile manuscript samples, raises the question on the importance of preservation of intellectual heritage of humankind. Two papers are devoted to the problem of dating of Sanskrit philosophical treatises.