Abstract
The article examines the impact the grammarian/philosopher Bhartṛhari (460–510) had on the way the ‘School of Recognition’ (Pratyabhijñā, tenth/eleventh c. CE) elaborated the notion that knowledge and consciousness have a close relationship with language. The paper first lays out Bhartṛhari’s ideas, showing that his theses are rationally defensible and philosophically refined. More specifically, it claims that the grammarian is defending a view which is in many respects similar to ‘higher-order theories’ of consciousness advanced by some contemporary philosophers of mind. In the second part, the paper shows how Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta adopted Bhartṛhari’s scheme without significant alteration.
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References
Sanskrit Texts
[ĪPV] Abhinavagupta. Īśvarapratyabhijñāvimarśinī. Ed by. K.A Subramania Iyer and K.C. Pandey. Motilal Banarsidass, 1986.
[ĪPK] Utpaladeva. Īśvarapratyabhijñākārikā and Vṛtti. See Torella 2002.
[PV] Dharmakīrti. Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika with a commentary by Manorathanandin. Edited by Rāhula Sāṅkṛtyāyana. Appendix to Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society 24–26 (1938–1940).
[VP] Bhartṛhari’s Vākyapadīya. See Iyer 1966 and Rau 1977.
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I am grateful to Elisa Freschi and one anonymous reviewer for their precious suggestions. Needless to say, all inaccuracies in this article remain mine.
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Ferrante, M. Studies on Bhartṛhari and the Pratyabhijñā: Language, Knowledge and Consciousness. J Indian Philos 48, 147–159 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-019-09412-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-019-09412-2