Sanskrit language and literature

2016 Madison South Asia Conference Abstract - Indian Buddhist ritual texts (ca. 6th-7th centuries CE) detail a systematization of mantra families (kulas) through which female deities gain new importance in Mahāyāna ritual and soteriological contexts. These systems consist of a minimum of three ritual families: the Buddha (headed by the Buddha Śākyamuni or Vairocana), the Lotus (headed by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara), and the Vajra (headed by the Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi). They are populated by a range of male and female deities who both effectuate practitioners' mantras and personify the physical and mental attributes of their kula leaders. The Mañjuśriyamūlakalpa, perhaps the earliest of these kula-system texts to survive in Sanskrit, characterizes the kula goddesses as female Bodhisattvas who respond to the mantras of their respective families and simultaneously work to establish beings on the path to Enlightenment. This paper focuses on the structure of a specific maṇḍala (sacred deity diagram) that encompasses all or most of these three kulas. It examines the ritual functions of a little-studied class of mantra goddesses (vidyārājñīs) including their processes of embodiment, personification, and positioning in relation to their kula leaders and male counterparts (vidyārājas). Navigating issues of erosion and absence, my analysis compares cognate forms of this early maṇḍala across mediums. Examples include: a stone relief sculpture in situ at the Pandavleni caves in Nāsik, Maharashtra (with figures missing), the sole remaining complete redaction of the Sanskrit Mañjuśriyamūlakalpa, and the Mahāvairocana Abhisaṃbodhi Tantra (a text that survives only its Chinese and Tibetan translations). Therefore, within this process of text-image comparison, my study emphasizes methodological points of difficulty due to the decay or erasure of my primary source materials (including lost sections of manuscript, manuscripts no longer extant, and the wearing away of sculptural imagery).

We are organising a 2-day symposium on yoga and the body to be held at the Australian National University, Canberra.

Here is the link to register: http://chl.anu.edu.au/news-events/events/658/yoga-and-body-past-and-present-symposium

Here is the link to download the flyer and schedule: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0ONiOO-EUx-c0w1ZnFQZ0pnWFE

This article proposes a new formal reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European (PIE) nouns containing the suffix *–oi–. I argue that both primary and non-primary derivatives in this class had stress alternating between the derivational suffix and the following inflectional ending (e.g., ACC.SG *[-óy-ṃ] vs. GEN *[-y-ós]) rather than the "amphikinetic" alternation between root and inflectional ending (ACC.SG *[´-oy-ṃ] vs. GEN *[-y-ós]) that is traditionally assumed for all primary nominals with suffixal *[o]-vocalism under the widely accepted “Erlangen Model” (Schindler 1975a,b, Rix 1992) of Indo-European morphophonology. Support for this alternative reconstruction comes from Hittite, which confirms that the suffixal stress seen in the Greek reflex of this noun class was inherited from PIE rather than root stress as in Vedic Sanskrit. More broadly, I contend that an adequate account of the prosodic behavior of PIE *–oi-stems requires (i) abandoning the traditional connection between suffixal *[o]-grade and "amphikinetic" word stress; and (ii) adopting a framework (such as the one articulated by Kiparsky 2010) in which the suffix's capacity to attract stress in both primary and non-primary derivation can be modeled in a unified way.

par Sylvain Brocquet.
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Ce manuel original, dont c’est ici la seconde édition, revue et augmentée, s’adresse à tous ceux qui souhaitent apprendre, seuls ou avec l’aide d’un professeur, le sanskrit classique afin de lire les textes. Rédigé de façon simple, il invite le lecteur à un apprentissage rigoureux et méthodique de la grammaire.

Dans cette nouvelle édition, de nombreuses explications supplémentaires ont été ajoutées, certains paragraphes ont été refondus, certains exercices remplacés par d’autres, mieux ciblés. On notera aussi l’adjonction d’un appendice métrique, dont le besoin s’est mainte fois fait entendre.

C’est à la fois une grammaire et une méthode d’apprentissage : les éléments de la langue sont exposés de façon exhaustive et systématique (seuls quelques faits mineurs sont laissés de côté), de façon telle que le lecteur puisse non seulement les y apprendre, mais encore s’y reporter comme à un ouvrage de référence.

La phonétique, la morphologie et la syntaxe sont regroupées de manière à mettre entre les mains de l’utilisateur, à la fin de chacune des vingt leçons, les outils nécessaires pour lire ou écrire des phrases simples et bientôt comprendre de petits textes originaux.

L’accent est mis sur l’observation et la pratique : la grammaire s’observe d’abord dans des textes courts rédigés dans ce but (le sanskrit est aussi une langue vivante !), puis fait l’objet d’un exposé systématique qu’il faudra mémoriser, enfin se met en pratique dans des exercices gradués (et corrigés) qui invitent à manipuler les structures nouvelles et facilitent leur apprentissage tout en confirmant les acquis.

L’ouvrage s’achève par un petit recueil regroupant dix textes littéraires expliqués et traduits (neuf contes en prose et un extrait du Rāmāyaṇa). Un lexique à deux entrées, sanskrit-français et français sanskrit, permet de lire ces textes et de faire les exercices proposés dans les diverses leçons. Ces textes, ainsi que les textes d’observation des vingt leçons, ont été enregistrés (lus deux fois : lentement puis à vitesse normale) par le Pr. Gopabandhu Mishra, de la Hindu University de Bénarès, sur un fichier audio accessible gratuitement (ici).

Le but de ce manuel est d’aider son utilisateur à devenir un lecteur autonome, qui pourra ensuite continuer à lire du sanskrit.

Ce manuel est complété par un Cahier d'exercices, comportant des exercices supplémentaires avec renvois vers les paragraphes correspondants dans la Grammaire. Cet ouvrage est conçu comme un vrai cahier, dans lequel le lecteur pourra compléter les exercices. Il comporte, en deuxième partie, leurs corrigés (http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA27).

Détails et table des matières sur http://www.safran.be/proddetail.php?prod=LCA26

Sheldon Pollock is the leading North American Indologist and his magnum opus, The Language of the Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India, is a field-defining classic. Pollock takes himself to be a fierce critic of Max Weber, but in fact his comparative historical approach shares much with Weber, and where it is wanting Pollock's text would have benefited from more, not less, Weberian influence. Pollock's vision of language history and his views on religion and legitimation are considered in detail.

Academic study of the tantric traditions has blossomed in recent decades, in no small measure thanks to the magisterial contributions of Alexis G. J. S. Sanderson, until 2015 Spalding Professor of Eastern Religions and Ethics at Oxford University. This collection of essays honours him and touches several fields of Indology that he has helped to shape (or, in the case of the Śaiva religions, revolutionised): the history, ritual, and philosophies of tantric Buddhism, Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism; religious art and architecture; and Sanskrit belles lettres. Grateful former students, joined by other experts influenced by his scholarship, here offer papers that make significant contributions to our understanding of the cultural, religious, political, and intellectual histories of premodern South and Southeast Asia.

Contributors are: Peter Bisschop, Judit Törzsök, Alex Watson, Isabelle Ratié, Christopher Wallis, Péter-Dániel Szántó, Srilata Raman, Csaba Dezső, Gergely Hidas, Nina Mirnig, John Nemec, Bihani Sarkar, Jürgen Hanneder, Diwakar Acharya, James Mallinson, Csaba Kiss, Jason Birch, Elizabeth Mills, Ryugen Tanemura, Anthony Tribe, and Parul Dave-Mukherji.

The publication is fully open-access and can be downloaded (in whole or chapter-by-chapter) from Brill's website: https://brill.com/view/title/56613

Section on the Śivadharmaśāstra now published in the Introduction to "A Śaiva Utopia" (Bisschop/Kafle/Lubin, Napoli, 2021), available here:
https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma |

Dharmaśāstra codes prescribed rules for other strata of society, including Śūdras and mixed-caste groups, circumscribing their legitimate social and religious agency. Later religious traditions, under the influence of more egalitarian devotional sentiments, modified Smārta caste policies. This paper focuses on three neglected examples, the Śivadharmaśāstra, the “Varṇāśramakāṇḍa” of the unpublished Kāśyapottarasaṃhitā, and the Varṇāśramacandrikā. These works are considered in light of their socio-historical context, and in relation to the late-medieval Śmārta works on Śūdradharma (examined in recent dissertations by Benke and Vajpeyi). These three works exemplify efforts by devotional movements to extend and adapt older Brahmanical categories in such a way that putatively Śūdra castes can partake of the ritual entitlements otherwise identified with Brahmanical status. Thus the Brahmanical birth-based status is subordinated to a ritually mediated spiritual kinship, which implies a conceptual reconfiguration of the Dharmaśāstric genre itself
The Śivadharmaśāstra (ca. 6th c.), the oldest part of the “Śivadharma corpus,” which teaches a Pāśupata-influenced bhakti religion for married householders steeped in Smārta religious practice, redefines varṇa and āśrama categories in light of an emergent lay Śaivism. Based on my provisional edition of adhyāya 11, I present its delineation of a śiva-āśrama analogous to the āśramas of classical Dharmaśāstra, but open to women and Śūdras. This is compared to the “Varṇāśramakāṇḍa” of the Kāśyapottarasaṃhitā, an unpublished late-medieval work outlining a Śrīvaiṣṇava version of varṇāśramadharma, with rules for performing the “purification of Śūdras” (śūdra-śuddhi) and special saṃskāras for Śūdras. Finally, I offer observations on the ultimate subversion of Brahmin prerogative: a Dharmaśāstra by a Śūdra. The Varṇāśramacandrikā (late 17th c.), composed by a member of the Dharmapuram maṭam, a non-Brahmin (Vēḷāḷa) Śaivasiddhānta institution in Tamil Nadu, argues that traditional Smārta literature in fact supports the notion that certain Śūdras are eligible for all levels of dīkṣā and abhiṣeka in Śaivasiddhānta.

This commentary is the start of a series presenting various topics found in seven major texts in the jyotis canon. The texts I chose are listed in chronological order as follows:

Yavanajātaka of Sphujidhvaja (3rd century CE)
Vṛddhayavanajātaka of Mīnarāja (4th century CE)
Bṛhajjātaka of Varāhamihira (6th century CE)
Sārāvalī of Kalyāṇavarma (9th century CE)
Horāsāraḥ of Pṛthuyaśas (9th to 14th century CE)
Jātakapārijāta of Vaidyanātha (15th century CE)
Phaladīpikā of Mantreśvara (after JPJ in the 15th century CE)

Most of these texts initially discuss the zodiac signs, planets, and strength, so these will be the first set of topics in this series. I translated every chapter of the above Sanskrit texts that deal specifically with the topics of this commentary.

Even though the Bṛhatpārāśarahorā of Pārāśara (between the 7th or 8th century CE) is in vogue, I chose not to use it in this canon review because there are some issues with the current published versions of it.

David Pingree’s commentary on the Yavanajātaka takes a far more detailed and expansive look at the topics covered in this commentary than I could ever do. I wrote this commentary in order to walk some of the same steps that Pingree did, gain my own understanding of the texts that I examined, and present them in my own way. Pingree’s publications were a great help in writing this commentary and I would highly recommend them. This commentary will point out a number of ideas that Pingree misstated or overlooked. In particular, Pingree does seem to be a bit over generous at times when assigning similarities between foreign and native sources, and also when exclusively making correspondences among the native jyotis sources. Given the volume and scope of Pingree’s work, these oversights would be within the norm of errors.

Pingree often gets painted with a broad brush that he advocated a one way transmission of horoscopic knowledge to India from Greece. This is not entirely true. If one would read the introduction to his commentary on the Yavanajātaka, one would see that he was just putting forth his best possible guess in regards to the horoscopic knowledge origins of India from the source materials available to him. He outright states that knowledge between India and Greece went both ways. Many important texts have been lost or have yet to be translated that would fill in the gaps with the subject matter of this commentary. In a very real sense, we are working with fragments of the past in regards to the history of jyotis.

This is the handout for a presentation I gave  in February of 2020 in Heidelberg at the workshop "Textual and Visual Sources on Buddhist Meditation: 56 Years after the First Publication of the ‘Buddhist Yoga Manual.’" The talk was entitled "The Deities of Others: Visionary meditation as inter-tradition critique in the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna-sūtra."

It is a precious knowledge of ancient india. this script was originally composed by mahrshi BHARADWAJA, the great indian sage around 5000 BC  ,it content english transtation of some of its sanskrit stotras and shlokas.before wright brothers first aircraft was made by dr Talpade was an Indian scholar who is said to have constructed and flown an unmanned airplane in 1895 with reference of this ancient hindu sanskrit manuscript .

Moscow: Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS; Oriental University, 2019. — 244 pp., ill.
The book is a collection of essays dealing with various aspects of Southeast Asian and Cambodian epigraphy and state formation. The first essay shows the decisive step to the territorial state in Southeast Asia that took place in the seventh century CE. The second essay offers English and Russian translations of the Văt Luong Kău inscription K. 365 issued in honour of the King Devānīka and found near Vat Phou in Laos. Devānīka’s kingdom had no relation to the kingdom of Zhenla, except the possibility that Zhenla conquered the kingdom of Devānīka or his successors. The third essay gives English and Russian translations of the earliest dated Old Kkmer inscription K. 557/600 of 611 CE found in Angkor Borei. The essay includes a short overview of the personal names in the inscriptions of Cambodia. The fourth essay includes English and Russian translations of the Phnom Preah Vihear inscription K. 733 and a discussion of the root vidyā in Old Khmer inscriptions. The fifth essay outlines the history and archaeology of Funan and its transition to Zhenla. The essay is written in Russian. It shows a gradual Indianization of the Lower Mekong River Delta where the kingdom of Funan emerged in the beginning of the Common Era.
Предлагаемая монография «Становление государственности в Юго-Восточной Азии: Фунань и Ченла» состоит из двух частей. Первая написана на английском языке, вторая – на русском. В первой части предлагается концепция формирования территориального государства в регионе в VII в., даны комментированные переводы ключевых ранних надписей, найденных на территории Индокитая. Это санскритская надпись царя Деваники из Ват Пху K. 365, древнейшая датированная древнекхмерская надпись из Ангкор Борея 611 г. K. 557/600 и недатированная санскритская надпись из Преах Вихеар K. 733, в которой упоминаются такие школы индийской философии, как ньяя и вайшешика. Анализ надписей показывает как множественность политических центров в ранней Юго-Восточной Азии и значительные масштабы влияния на неё индийской культуры, так и сложный характер местной антропонимики, в которой одновременно существовали санскритские, древнекхмерские и другие австроазиатские имена. Вторая часть монографии посвящена изложению сведений о древнейших царствах Индокитая – Фунани и Ченле, известных из китайской исторической традиции. Данные письменных источников сопоставляются с результатами археологических исследований в Индокитае. Дана характеристика культуры Окео. В отдельном параграфе рассматриваются царские надписи эпохи Фунани, которые могли быть изданы её правителями или в их честь. Другой параграф показывает циклический характер завоевания Фунани древнекхмерским царством Ченлой: её правители Читрасена-Махендраварман и Ишанаварман оба именуются победителями Фунани в древнекитайских источниках. Особый параграф касается положения зависимых лиц в доангкорской Камбодже – кхнюмов, которых традиционно считают рабами, но чей статус остаётся не вполне ясным.

Paper for the panel: The Viṣṇudharma and the Śivadharma: points of influence and divergence, 33. Deutscher Orientalistentag, Jena, Germany, 18–22 September 2017 

* Published now in the Introduction to the book "A Śaiva Utopia" on Academia * :
https://www.academia.edu/67886226/A_%C5%9Aaiva_Utopia_The_%C5%9Aivadharma_s_Revision_of_Brahmanical_Var%E1%B9%87%C4%81%C5%9Bramadharma 

In a recent papers examining the Śivadharma[śāstra], I analyzed that way the author of this work has recast several of the distinctive categories of Smārta Brahmanical dharma, particularly the four-āśrama model, affirming the varṇa (social class) categories but extending the range of ritual agency available to Śūdras and women through devotional observances (and in one verse, even to foreigners, 1.26), and generalizing acts of generosity and hospitality prescribed in Dharmaśāstra only for high-status recipients so as to benefit the needy regardless of status. In general terms, the Viṣṇudharma, apparently dating to roughly the same period, likewise adapts the varṇāśrama-dharma of early Dharmaśāstra to a sectarian religious orientation — in this case, Bhāgavata rather than Māheśvara — but with notably different results. First, where the Śivadharmaśāstra evidently presupposes the older non-sequential āśrama model of the Dharmasūtras, the Viṣṇudharma adopts the sequential model introduced in Manu's code (ca. 200 CE). Whereas the Śivadharma redirects the Smārta guest-reception rite and madhuparka meal for the benefit of Śiva-bhaktas (lay Śaivas adhering to a formal vow), no comparable rite appears in the Viṣṇudharma (where the elements of guest reception appear only as part of the ceremony of worshiping deities or ancient sages). Most notably, the Viṣṇudharma (especially in chapters 24–25, 66, and 105) enters into sectarian polemic against the threat posed in this decadent Kali age by " heretics " (pāṣaṇḍas) of many stripes, including Buddhists, Jains, Sāṃkhyas, skeptics, and false ascetics. Arguments framed in foreign languages (hetuvādair … mlecchabhāṣānibandhaiḥ) are singled out for condemnation (105.44), and Śūdras who become ascetics and go about without caste-markers provoke serious concern. The Śivadharmaśāstra makes no reference to " heretics " (and only the most circumspect allusion to other religious groups), and adopts a more inclusive social policy. In short, the Viṣṇudharma's conception of Viṣṇu-bhakti pointedly defends classical Smārta status hierarchy and its prerogatives, foregoing the Śivadharma's modest moves toward social inclusion. This paper concludes by setting these observations in the context of later trends in the two traditions.

The present book contains the entire Sanskrit text of Haribhatta’s Jatakamala (ca. AD 400), as far as it has been preserved in a few manuscripts presently accessible to us. Haribhatta’s work belongs to the Buddhist genre of “Garlands of stories about previous lives of the Buddha” and represents a rare specimen of early Sanskrit poetry written in the Campu style. Since 1904 when scholars first learned about Haribhatta’s Jatakamala from Tibetan sources, it was assumed that the Sanskrit work has been irretrievably lost and that it has survived only in its Tibetan translation. Although in the 1970s some parts of the original Sanskrit text were discovered and later made known in various publications by the late Professor Michael Hahn, a complete and handy edition of the entire work did not appear in print. The present book aims to close this gap by offering a critical re-edition of all parts which have been previously published, and by supplying new editions of those parts which have not been published before. The Sanskrit text is fully annotated with text-critical notes and explanatory comments, and is followed by various indices and a glossary of unknown and noteworthy words. Available from the publisher http://cms.unipune.ac.in/pis/ and from www.vajrabookshop.com

In this chapter, I focus on phenomenological reduction and reflective meditation in the Advaita Vedānta system. Many Advaita Vedānta traditions and texts guide meditation, but here I discuss only one 14th-century text, the Dṛgdṛśyaviveka: An Inquiry into the Nature of the 'Seer' and the 'Seen' (Vidyāraṇya 1931), hereafter "DDV", primarily because it gives a clear summary of the traditional approach within Advaita Vedānta and facilitates the intended dialogue. The objective is not to explore the scope of phenomenology, nor to address meditative techniques and philosophical arguments in Advaita Vedānta, but to develop a conversation between phenomenology and Advaita Vedānta. Phenomenological reduction was introduced by Husserl and later discussed by Fink, to liberate one from dogmatic convictions, to discover the essence as it is. This is a method of returning to 'the thing as such', free from conceptual parameters. For Husserl, scientific inquiry demands an investigator bracket all the imposed factors to be isolated from the pure world or 'things themselves' (1998). This process is one of going back to the world free of contamination by assumptions and methods, whether scientific or psychological. Significant to this are the moments of epoché or abstention, and of the reduction proper, a process that brings the inquiry back to consciousness. Husserl sought here to overcome the chasm between consciousness (subject) and world (object), without requiring this to be mediated by categories, as with Kantian epistemology. The process culminates in exposing the state where no distinction remains between consciousness and object, noesis and noema. This erasure of the gap led some to equate systems like Advaita and Yoga with phenomenology. Our openness to comparing the systems stems from the conviction that even when philosophies differ, their scientific methods can overlap, and sometimes, a comparative approach makes exploring the nuances easier. Though systems remain separate, dialogue among them is promising for future philosophy. Just as there are objections to phenomenological methods being unable to serve as a bridge and remaining Cartesian, similar objections can be made to Advaita taking arguments too far, to solipsism and subjective illusionism. The scope of this paper, again, is to explore the philosophy of meditation as championed by Husserl and Śaṅkara (8th-century ce India), relying on a secondary text, DDV, to synthesize the system of Śaṅkara, who may be considered the Classical Indian period equivalent of Greek

India has a rich and ancient tradition of building cities, monuments, towers, dams, bridges, reservoirs, step-wells and other civic infrastructure besides beautiful temples and palaces. Some of the present day highways are aligned on ancient tracts that were first laid several centuries ago. There are several ancient Sanskrit texts known as either vāstuśāstra or śilpaśāstra that describe some aspects of residential buildings, temples and other structures. The present text, attributed to the authorship of Nārada, the legendary sage and polymath, is a Vāstuśāstra text, although traditionally the manuscripts are titled Nārada Śilpaśāstra. This text, in terse technical Sanskrit prose describes
site selection, planning of villages and cities, construction of roads, dams, lakes, foundation, basement, and super structure of private and public buildings including marriage halls, art galleries, theaters and temples. Internal evidences point out that in its present form, this text originated at a time when weekdays were not in vogue, but acquired additional material at a later period and fixed in South India around 6th century CE.

If a chess-knight is moved on a vacant chessboard [8 × 8 square] such that it visits each one of the 64 squares once and once only, the knight is said to execute a Knight's Tour. Solution to the knight's tour problem was known in India as early as the 9 th century AD as a demonstration of wizardry in composing 32-syllable verses in Sanskrit. A pair of meaningful verses is composed in such a manner that when one verse is written serially (left to right and top to bottom) one syllable a square to fill up 8 × 4 cells-half of a chess board-the other verse appears as the Knight's Tour. The earliest example of this skill in poetry-composition is given in a Sanskrit treatise on poetics, kāvyālaṅkāra written by Rudraṭa who lived around the ninth century A.D. Knight's Tour as a mathematical problem was first noticed and discussed in the West by Leonard Euler in the eighteenth century. After providing the back ground to the subject as a puzzle on the chessboard , a problem in mathematics and as a challenge in verse-composition, the article discusses the special characteristic of Rudrata's example where the pair of verses reduces to a single verse.

The Indus Valley Civilisation used thousands of seals with symbols which have not been properly understood so far.Most of these symbols were later used all over India and abroad on pottery,copper plates,rocks ,textiles,furniture , metalwork products etc. But the fundamental principle underlying these symbols escaped the attention of scholars and researchers so far.This led to many strange conclusions about their readings. In this paper we are explaining the basic principle of the symbols and their purpose. We are not surprised to find that vedic
“mangala/mangalatraya/ ashTamangala / agni/ kaala/raja/ laabha/varsha/sabha/siva/subha/srii” are the underlying words employed in most of the inscriptions. These symbols agree with the Rg vedic concept of agni/fire worship and the archeological evidence of presence of vedic fire altars in IVC sites.Worship of agni(sun,fire,king,priest) led to the use of these symbols by other contemporary civilisations also.
The Ashtamangala(asta-mangala>house of king ; cf.Heb.LMLK;Bethlehem/beth-melech;king’s sacrifice;bull’s sacrifice) is a set of Eight Auspicious Signs used in religions like  Hinduism,Jainism, and Buddhism. In the Hindu tradition, the Ashtamangala may be used during certain occasions like pujas,weddings,coronation of kings etc.  They have been depicted in decorative motifs on pottery ,temples,royal palaces, houses and cultural artifacts.This paper explores the Harappan ashTa mangala rationale in vedic literature,rituals and sacrifices,temple architecture etc.

Rāmacandrācārya’s Prakriyākaumudī and Jīva Gosvāmin’s Harināmāmṛtavyākaraṇa (15th-16th centuries) are the first two grammars in the Brahminical context to include verses with bitextual meaning (śleṣa). In those verses, the authors simultaneously talk about grammar and the divine, often expressing their Vedāntic views. They make extensive use of religious examples and invocation (maṅgala) verses like the 13th century Mugdhabodha and many 17th-18th century navya (“new school”) grammar texts. What is new is their use of śleṣa. This paper examines how śleṣa in these texts correlates with the authors’ project of religious assimilation in Sanskrit grammar; how it provides a useful commentary on Rāmacandra’s and Jīva’s attitudes towards grammatical correctness and authority; and what it can indicate about their religious and grammatical positions. I will argue that both Rāmacandra and Jīva, who was one of the first to critique Rāmacandra’s grammar, innovated with śleṣa to further the proce...

In the interest of exploring the relationship between soteriology and philosophy in the Bodhicaryāvatāra, and hoping to counterbalance the tendency to read it as a source for normative ethics, this paper compares Śantideva's text in comparison with elements of philosophical phenomenology (found primarily within Husserl and Heidegger). I aim to use this comparison to show both how the Bodhicaryāvatāra has important simmilarities to Husserl and Heidegger in its philosophical aims and conclusions, as well as how the philosophical arguments in the Bodhicaryāvatāra can only make sense in the light of the text's implicit acknowledgement of a profound phenomenological transformation that goes beyond anything the European phenomenologists considered.

P. R. Sarkar described Ráŕh, an ancient land in eastern India, as the “Cradle of Civilization”. He claimed that it is one of the areas where human beings first appeared on Earth. Bengali, or Báḿlá, which has come from the Púrvii Ardha-Mágadhii language, is the language of Ráŕh today. Within Bengali there are twelve main dialects, which are listed in the article.  Ráŕh’s dialects include Mid-Ráŕhii Báḿlá, Kolkata Báḿlá and several other dialects or sub-dialects. Because of the high percentage (92%) of Sanskrit-related words in the “colloquial language of the remote outpost of Ráŕh”, P. R. Sarkar suggests that Sanskrit had almost no relation with the influx of the Aryans into India, nor is Sanskrit of foreign origin. This article contains Chapters 19-28 of his book Ráŕh—The Cradle of Civilization plus a short article on the history and dialect of Ráŕh.  P. R. Sarkar (also known as Shrii Shrii Anandamurti) (1922-1990), was the spiritual guru of Ananda Marga and a self-described master of all languages – Richard Gauthier, Santa Rosa, California, October 26, 2020.

Link for the  video of talk - https://vimeo.com/304560544

Tantra means Śāstra and Yukti refers to devices. Tantrayukti refers to the ancient doctrine that provides set devices to construct śāstra texts. Tantrayuktis presence in Sanskrit textual tradition can be traced from 5th century B.C.E. approx. (Arthaśāstra) to 12th century C.E (Vāmakeśvarītantra) i.e. for over 1700 years. Such an important doctrine in ancient Indian literary tradition has relevance and practical utility.  a) This doctrine helps to systematically understand the structure and the contents of ancient Indic texts cutting across languages. b) The comparative studies of the texts between Indian literary traditions can be more structured and systematic with the knowledge of the Tantrayukti doctrine that is found in various literary traditions besides Sanskrit texts. c) The doctrine of Tantrayukti can be used as a guidebook for construction and interpretation of texts by authors and scholars in current topics of the contemporary era. This talk juxtaposes current thesis writing tools with the devices from the ancient India Tantrayukti manual and attempts to bring out the merits of Tantrayukti devices.

This paper examines a peripheral story told in Mahābhārata 9.49, concerning two sages, Asita Devala and Jaigīṣavya. The story is interesting because it illustrates some of the tensions that prevailed in epic times between two different sets of values, those of pravṛtti, exemplified by the sacrificial world-view, and those of nivṛtti, exemplified by asceticism and sannyāsa, leading to liberation. But over and above these two, it also stresses the importance of yoga as an essential means to obtain salvation.