Recognizing the fact that Bhartrhari's Vakyapadiya had engaged the attention of thinkers of different schools of Indian philosophy such as Naiyavikas, Mimamsakas, Vedanta’s, Buddhists and Jainas as well as the Agama traditions like Kashmir Saivism, the Varanasi centre of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts organized a series of seminars on the Vakyapadiya of Bhartrhari. It was also decided to start a dialogue between the scholars of ancient and modern western philosophies of language. Accordingly, a three day national seminar on 'Indian and Western Philosophy of Language' was held at Varanasi from February 10-12th, 2011 in collaboration with the Department of Vyakarana, Faculty of Sanskrit Learning and Theology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. The present volume is an outcome of the seminar and contains the revised and enlarged versions of the papers presented by the participants. Some of the papers present and analyze diverse aspects of Bhartrhari's philosophy. Some others critically examine the linguistic thought as developed in other schools of Indian Philosophy. A few of them deal with the issues raised by Western thinkers like Chomsky, Searle, etc.
It is hoped that this volume will be of immense interest to the philosophers of language across countries. It should help them to explore and understand some of the intricate aspects of Bhartrhari's philosophy of language and compare it with the terminology and technique developed by modern Western thinkers.
His important publications are: (1) Indian Realism: A Rigorous Descriptive Metaphysics, (2) The Nyaya Theory of Linguistic Performance and (3) The Religion: A Discourse in Realist Philosophy. He has also edited sabdakhanda of Tattvacintamani.
Dr. Kamalesh Datta Tripathi, Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Sanskrit Learning and Theology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi is an eminent Indologist, author and editor of many books and articles on ancient Indian theatre and Natyas-sastra.
Appointed as a Lecturer in Religion in 1970, Reader in 1977 and Professor in BHU in 1987, he held the office of Dean of the Faculty of Sanskrit Learning and Theology and rendered his services as a Member of the Executive Council of Banaras Hindu University. In his long academic career spanning over four decades, Dr. Tripathi served as Director, Kalidas Academy, and Ujjain for nine years. His major publications are Edition of Paramarthasara, Kalatattvakosa Vol. VII and Nepal Version of Natyasastra.
In recognition of his contribution to the field of Sanskrit theatre, he has been nominated as an Honorary Fellow of Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi. He received 'Certificate of Merit' from the President of India in 2007. Presently, he is serving as Centennial Chair Professor, Bharat Adhyayan Kendra, BHU, and Varanasi.
Bhartrhari's Vakyapadya occupies a central place in the Indian philosophy of language. In order to grasp the real import of the issues discussed in different schools of Indian philosophy and their methodology it is essential to study the Vakyapadaya, as it reflects the development of the philosophy of language, theories of meaning, the relationship between language and reality in Indian tradition. Many of the pundits and modern scholars living and working in Varanasi had serious engagement with Bhartrhari's Vakyapadaya from the earliest time.
The first editions of Vakyapadaya, edited by Ramakrishna Shastri Patavardhan, Gangadhar Shastri Manville et al., were published from Varanasi between the years 1884 to1937. These pioneering editions were criticized by several other scholars as not being sufficiently critical. However, their singular merit was that they attracted the attention of scholar from all over the world to the text of Bhartrhari. More significantly, they prepared the ground for extensive studies in the area of philosophy of language. Many Western thinkers, who were being exposed to the philosophy of language for the first time in the beginning of the 20lh century, came to recognize that India had a long and continuous tradition of philosophical analysis of language. Following these editions, critical editions were brought out by Charudev Shastri for Kanda I and part of Kanda II, the complete Karaka text by K V. Abhyankar and vs. Lemay and finally the complete editions of Karaka and commentaries by KA. Subramanian Ayer. In the 7th and 8th decades of 20th century Pt. Raghunath Sharma of Varanasi also wrote a modern Sanskrit commentary on this exhaustive, rich, profound and complex text.
Recognizing the fact that Bhartrhari's Vakyapadya had engaged the attention of thinkers of different schools of Indian philosophy such as aiyayikas, Mimamsakas, Vedanta’s, Buddhists and Jainas as well as the Agama traditions like Kashmir Saivism, acknowledge- edging the pioneering efforts and contribution of the Varanasi scholars, and continuing the city's tradition of learning and scholarship, the Varanasi centre of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts organized a series of seminars on the Vakyapadya of Bhartrhari. Initially, the scholars from Varanasi engaged in the study of Bhartrhari' Vakyapadaya were invited to teach and discuss the text along with its commentaries. In the later phases, scholars from all over India were invited to share their research finding in national level seminars held on the philosophy of Vakyapadya.
One of the purposes of holding this seminar is to add one more dimension to the ongoing Endeavour of re-visiting and reinventing Bharthari (in the form of holding the just concluded series of seminars on Bhartrhari). But what connection I there between Bhartrhari or the study of Bhartrhari and the philosophy of language? So far as this seminar is partly on the Indian philosophy of language, it is impossible not to refer to and study closely the relevant ideas and doctrines of Bhartrhari.
This is so because Bhartrhari, if none else before him, is believed to have given us a philosophy of language independent of any outside influence. True, but such a contention has also been contested. I Besides, what Bhartrhari gave us is a form of grammatical philosophy which is so unique that it is hard to relate it to anything Western or at least to the main- stream contemporary Euro-American philosophy of language, which in its turn is equally uniquely tied to Western thought and culture.
So far there may not be any obvious connection between the study of Bhartrhari or his grammatical philosophy and the study or enterprise of the philosophy of language. However, his contributions to theoretical grammar and the philosophy of grammar are likely to be more directly connected to what in Indian culture and literature corresponds to the philosophy of language, and hence can be described as the Indian philosophy of language.
The second question which may be asked is "How far it is natural or necessary to link the philosophy of language of two cultures?" - to link the study of Indian philosophy of language to that of the Western Philosophy of language. Indeed, the classical Indian philosophy of language developed differently from, and independently of any reference to, the standard Euro-American philosophy of language, which developed as late as the twentieth century.
These two philosophies of language came to be linked through the works of those philosophy professionals of modern India who work in this field. For well known historical reasons, the majority of these scholars happen to have exclusive or greater acquaintance with the modern and contemporary Western philosophy of language. They usually do not know much about the classical Indian philosophy of language and still less about vyiikara1fa in general and Bhartrhari in particular; yet in the course of their study and research in contemporary Western philosophy of language, some of them, for various reasons, developed some interest in classical Indian grammar and philosophy of language. A similar interest was not observed among their Western counterparts, barring a few rare individuals.
Book's Contents and Sample Pages
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Christian (193)
Sikh (55)
Aesthetics (327)
Buddhist (17)
Comparative (69)
Dictionary (14)
Ethics (39)
Hindu (1692)
Islam (7)
Language (372)
Logic (75)
Mimamsa (52)
Nyaya (127)
Philosophers (2370)
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