Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.08
M. Schmücker
By pointing out different forms of pre-reflective consciousness and comparing them to the concepts of self in Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, it could be shown that both schools apply a kind of consciousness that corresponds to Frank’s concept of self-consciousness and self-knowledge. As demonstrated, the first form of pre-reflective consciousness complies with the advaitic teaching of an unchangeable eternity of consciousness, which is subjectless and understood as being without time and space, even as being omnipresent. It appears impossible to relate it to something else without it being objectified. The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta school reinterprets the concept of pure consciousness and accepts it as objectifiable consciousness, which is now considered “knowledge”. At the same time it presupposes a kind of individual consciousness which is called “I”. Moreover, this school uses the argument that consciousness is unobjectifiable against the Advaitin to establish that objectifying does not imply the cessation of consciousness, that is, in their case the consciousness of the individual self. Rāmānuja thus theorises, a thesis continued by Veṅkaṭanātha, that knowledges (saṃvit) can be remembered over time because, first, they are based on a constant self, that is, a pre-reflective “I”-consciousness, and secondly, through this “knowledge”, they can be known again by referring to itself in another state (avasthā) than it earlier held. But what does this mean for the familiarity of (self‑)consciousness? Is it mediated? The self, the “I”-consciousness, is always in a new, changed state of knowledge. As far as self-luminosity is possible, even if the self can be objectified, it is possible to say, without negating consciousness, that it is immediately aware of being in a special state if this can be proven through different means of knowledge.
{"title":"On Pre-reflectivity of Self-consciousness in the Traditions of Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta","authors":"M. Schmücker","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.08","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.08","url":null,"abstract":"By pointing out different forms of pre-reflective consciousness and comparing them to the concepts of self in Advaita and Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, it could be shown that both schools apply a kind of consciousness that corresponds to Frank’s concept of self-consciousness and self-knowledge. As demonstrated, the first form of pre-reflective consciousness complies with the advaitic teaching of an unchangeable eternity of consciousness, which is subjectless and understood as being without time and space, even as being omnipresent. It appears impossible to relate it to something else without it being objectified. The Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta school reinterprets the concept of pure consciousness and accepts it as objectifiable consciousness, which is now considered “knowledge”. At the same time it presupposes a kind of individual consciousness which is called “I”. Moreover, this school uses the argument that consciousness is unobjectifiable against the Advaitin to establish that objectifying does not imply the cessation of consciousness, that is, in their case the consciousness of the individual self. Rāmānuja thus theorises, a thesis continued by Veṅkaṭanātha, that knowledges (saṃvit) can be remembered over time because, first, they are based on a constant self, that is, a pre-reflective “I”-consciousness, and secondly, through this “knowledge”, they can be known again by referring to itself in another state (avasthā) than it earlier held. But what does this mean for the familiarity of (self‑)consciousness? Is it mediated? The self, the “I”-consciousness, is always in a new, changed state of knowledge. As far as self-luminosity is possible, even if the self can be objectified, it is possible to say, without negating consciousness, that it is immediately aware of being in a special state if this can be proven through different means of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45438445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.03
G. Colas
The Vimānārcanakalpa, a text of around the 10th century C.E., belongs to the Vaikhānasa medieval corpus of ritual manuals. It contains a wealth of ritual and iconographic prescriptions about man-made icons of Viṣṇu and his manifestations, management of power in icons, atonements for ritual shortcomings, etc. According to the Vimānārcanakalpa, the duty of the founder patron, the priests and the whole society is to perpetuate ritual and preserve the integrity of icons as defectless bodily forms in an unsullying environment, because the benefits aspired to by them through the installation of icons are constantly threatened. Dependent on numerous internal (material damage, ritual defects, etc.) and external (theft, defilement, etc.) factors, icons are forever prone to troubles and can become troubling when deprived of ideal conditions.
{"title":"Icons, Troubled and Troubling","authors":"G. Colas","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.03","url":null,"abstract":"The Vimānārcanakalpa, a text of around the 10th century C.E., belongs to the Vaikhānasa medieval corpus of ritual manuals. It contains a wealth of ritual and iconographic prescriptions about man-made icons of Viṣṇu and his manifestations, management of power in icons, atonements for ritual shortcomings, etc. According to the Vimānārcanakalpa, the duty of the founder patron, the priests and the whole society is to perpetuate ritual and preserve the integrity of icons as defectless bodily forms in an unsullying environment, because the benefits aspired to by them through the installation of icons are constantly threatened. Dependent on numerous internal (material damage, ritual defects, etc.) and external (theft, defilement, etc.) factors, icons are forever prone to troubles and can become troubling when deprived of ideal conditions.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42484725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.02
J. Bronkhorst
This article draws attention to the fact, often overlooked, that innovation is not foreign to the history of Indian philosophy. Three such episodes are briefly discussed (in reverse chronological order): (1) the innovations introduced by Raghunātha and his followers in the Nyāya school of thought (ca. 1500 CE); (2) the innovations that gave rise to satkāryavāda, pariṇāmavāda, śūnyavāda, anekāntavāda and other philosophical positions (early centuries CE); (3) the innovations responsible for the first manifestations of rational philosophy in India (ca. second century BCE). Raghunātha’s innovations are most instructive in that a great deal is known about his politico- cultural surroundings. Lessons drawn from these help us to understand the beginnings of Indian rational philosophy better.
{"title":"Innovation in Indian Philosophy in Context","authors":"J. Bronkhorst","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.02","url":null,"abstract":"This article draws attention to the fact, often overlooked, that innovation is not foreign to the history of Indian philosophy. Three such episodes are briefly discussed (in reverse chronological order): (1) the innovations introduced by Raghunātha and his followers in the Nyāya school of thought (ca. 1500 CE); (2) the innovations that gave rise to satkāryavāda, pariṇāmavāda, śūnyavāda, anekāntavāda and other philosophical positions (early centuries CE); (3) the innovations responsible for the first manifestations of rational philosophy in India (ca. second century BCE). Raghunātha’s innovations are most instructive in that a great deal is known about his politico- cultural surroundings. Lessons drawn from these help us to understand the beginnings of Indian rational philosophy better.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48784771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.09
Silvia Schwarz Linder
The aim of this article is to discuss a specific element of the teachings of the Tripurārahasya (TR), a Sanskrit work of South Indian origin, possibly composed between the 12th and 15th centuries and associated with the Tantric Śākta religious tradition of the Śrīvidyā. The element in question is the reformulation, to be found in the TR, of the Pratyabhijñā twofold doctrine known as svātantryavāda and ābhāsavāda. According to this doctrine, characterized by a realistic idealism, the divine luminous Consciousness, by Her sovereign freedom (svātantrya), manifests the world, which appears as a reflection (ābhāsa, pratibimba) in the mirror of Her own self. Scrutiny of the relevant passages from the TR, in the light of some extracts from the works of the authors of the Pratyabhijñā, makes it possible, on the one hand, to highlight the main features of this doctrine as it was recast in the TR, and, on the other, to put forward explanations for the inconsistencies detectable in the text of the TR, which may be ascribed to the influence of the illusionism of the Yoga-Vāsiṣṭha.
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Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.10
Lidia Sudyka
Virūpākṣa-vasantotsava-campū describes the nine-night-long Spring Festival, vasantotsava, in the capital of the Vijayanagara kingdom. The text is quite ambiguous in many respects. It is probable that one of its protagonists, a certain Brahmin, a poet by profession, speaks here on behalf of the real author, Ahobala, who most probably lived in the 15th century CE. The present paper will be devoted to the episode connected with the mṛgayotsava or the Hunt Festival, which was a part of vasantotsava celebrations. What will be particularly stressed is the fact that Ahobala’s description of the mṛgayotsava, which takes place in the public sphere connected strongly to kingship, unexpectedly evolves into the experience belonging to a private sphere, namely concerning a personal meeting of a devotee with God. At the same time the poet evoked rich tradition of showing the forest as the place of encounters between representatives of different worlds.
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Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.04
Ewa Dębicka-Borek
The aim of this paper is to discuss the usage of two bhakti-related metaphors intended to represent self-surrender: the metaphor of marriage and the metaphor of self-decapitation. The explored narratives—one about Narasiṃha marrying Ceñcatā (a Ceñcū huntress) and the other about Bhairava who cuts off his own head for the sake of Narasiṃha—are connected to the Śrīvaiṣṇava center of Narasiṃha worship in Ahōbilam. As I will try to demonstrate, even though both served to convey the message about Narasiṃha’s final acceptance of strangers who loved him unconditionally, the employment of different symbolism may point to the fact that each of these tales originated in different circles, which, although linked to Ahōbilam, at the outset were occupied with different matters and interested in different targets: Vijayanagara rulers who supported the site to extend the kingdom’s boundaries and local temple priests eager to increase the number of pilgrims.
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Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.07
Marion Rastelli
The paper traces the history of religious practices devoted to a particular set of the twelve manifestations of Viṣṇu. These practices are mostly monthly observances (vrata), which were widely known and implemented as evident from their description in various textual sources such as the Baudhāyana Sūtras, Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā, the Ṛgvidhāna, the Viṣṇudharma, and appendix passages of the Mahābhārata. They were highly influential even beyond the sectarian borders of Vaiṣṇavism, since they served as a model for the composition of a full calendrical scheme in the Niśvāsamukha, which belongs to the earliest extant Śaiva tantra, the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā.
{"title":"Worshipping Viṣṇu’s Twelve Manifestations: A Glimpse into Early Medieval Vaiṣṇava Lay Practice","authors":"Marion Rastelli","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.07","url":null,"abstract":"The paper traces the history of religious practices devoted to a particular set of the twelve manifestations of Viṣṇu. These practices are mostly monthly observances (vrata), which were widely known and implemented as evident from their description in various textual sources such as the Baudhāyana Sūtras, Varāhamihira’s Bṛhatsaṃhitā, the Ṛgvidhāna, the Viṣṇudharma, and appendix passages of the Mahābhārata. They were highly influential even beyond the sectarian borders of Vaiṣṇavism, since they served as a model for the composition of a full calendrical scheme in the Niśvāsamukha, which belongs to the earliest extant Śaiva tantra, the Niśvāsatattvasaṃhitā.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41722676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2019-06-14DOI: 10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.01
Suganya Anandakichenin
This article explores how three medieval Śrīvaiṣṇava commentators— Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai (13th c.), Aḻakiya Maṇavāḷa Perumāḷ Nāyaṉār (14th c.) and Vedānta Deśikaṉ (14th c.)—deal with the passages that describe the different body parts of Raṅganātha, the main Deity in Śrīraṅgam, in Tiruppāṇ Āḻvār’s (9th c.) set of ten verses. Known as Amalaṉātipirāṉ (AAP),1 this decade, now part of the Nālāyira Tivviyap Pirapantam (or Nālāyira Divya Prabandham), follows the eyes of the poet, as they gradually move from the Deity’s foot to His head. The commentators make the most of these descriptions in order to emphasize the importance of beauty, which is visible, hence accessible, to everyone in His arcā (‘sacred icon’2) form and which is inextricably linked to His other attributes like sovereignty.
{"title":"Drowning in the Beauty of the Lord: A Glimpse at the Medieval Śrīvaiṣṇava Commentators’ Interpretation of the pādādi-keśa-varṇana of Tiruppāṇ Āḻvār’s Amalaṉātipirān","authors":"Suganya Anandakichenin","doi":"10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.01","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12797/CIS.21.2019.01.01","url":null,"abstract":"This article explores how three medieval Śrīvaiṣṇava commentators— Periyavāccāṉ Piḷḷai (13th c.), Aḻakiya Maṇavāḷa Perumāḷ Nāyaṉār (14th c.) and Vedānta Deśikaṉ (14th c.)—deal with the passages that describe the different body parts of Raṅganātha, the main Deity in Śrīraṅgam, in Tiruppāṇ Āḻvār’s (9th c.) set of ten verses. Known as Amalaṉātipirāṉ (AAP),1 this decade, now part of the Nālāyira Tivviyap Pirapantam (or Nālāyira Divya Prabandham), follows the eyes of the poet, as they gradually move from the Deity’s foot to His head. The commentators make the most of these descriptions in order to emphasize the importance of beauty, which is visible, hence accessible, to everyone in His arcā (‘sacred icon’2) form and which is inextricably linked to His other attributes like sovereignty.","PeriodicalId":36623,"journal":{"name":"Cracow Indological Studies","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49408156","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2018-12-31DOI: 10.12797/CIS.20.2018.02.10
M. Browarczyk
The article in the opening section foregrounds theoretical debate on autobiography with particular reference to women’s writing in South Asia. Subsequently, it presents motivations for recent interest in the genre amongst women writing in Hindi and, eventually, it looks into the narrative strategies employed by Krishna Agnihotri (Lagtā nahī ̃ hai dil merā (‘My heart is not in it’), 1996; Aur, aur... aurat (‘And, and… woman’), 2010) and Maitreyi Pushpa (Kasturī kuṇḍal basai (‘Kasturi and Her Jewel of a Daughter’), 2002; Guṛiyā bhītar guṛiyā (‘A Doll within a Doll’), 2008). Agnihotri and Pushpa authored two volumes of autobiographies and the article further analyses their various strategies of constructing their ‘narrative selves’ and of particular arrangement of their life stories in two separate volumes.
文章在开篇就自传展开了理论辩论，并特别提到南亚的女性写作。随后，它提出了最近女性用印地语写作对这一类型感兴趣的动机，并最终探讨了Krishna Agnihotri所采用的叙事策略（Lagtānahīõhai dil merā（“我的心不在其中”），1996年；Aur，Aur。。。aurat（“And，And…woman”），2010）和弥勒普什帕（Kasturīkuṇḍal-basai（“Kasturi和她的女儿珠宝”），2002年；顾ṛiyābhītar guṛiyā（“玩偶中的玩偶”），2008年）。Agnihotri和Pushpa写了两卷自传，文章进一步分析了他们构建“叙事自我”的各种策略，以及在两卷独立的自传中对他们人生故事的特殊安排。
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Pub Date : 2018-12-31DOI: 10.12797/CIS.20.2018.02.02
Ulrich Timme Kragh
Modern South Asian women’s writing wells up to the stirring surface of contemporary literature in now globally recognizable forms of fiction and memoir, inter alia, the novel, the poem, the biography, the autobiography. Yet, beneath these topmost layers of colonial and post-colonial literary tides flow undercurrents of precolonial women’s writing, often in radically other figurations of lettered expression. Even further down than the familiar temporal strata of the Vaiṣṇavite and Śaivite religious poetry written by the dozen authoresses ranging from Muktābāi to Rūpa Bhavānī between the thirteenth and eighteenth centuries, there exists another place in the deep, like an underwater lake, of a much older women’s writing penned by Tantric women gurus. The majority of this archaic Buddhist literature streamed out of the Swat valley in Pakistan, a locality for no less than seven known female gurus, who lived, taught, or wrote there between the eighth and eleventh centuries. After a short prologue on Swat and its recent history, the essay surveys eleven female-authored medieval Tantric works, which range in genre from ritual treatises, meditation practice-texts, and mystic poems, to literary forms that even seem evocative of contemporary women’s gendered voices: spiritual biography and autobiography empowered by a place.
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