Abstract
This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Jarava Lal Mehta. Beginning with a brief look at Mehta’s childhood, the majority of the chapter identifies the various developments in his philosophical journey, a journey that begins with his interests in psychoanalysis. His interest in psychological studies, however, proved fleeting. Mehta finds his true çùi in Martin Heidegger. Through most of the 1950s and 1960s, Mehta’s interests were indeed oriented toward Continental philosophy. In addition to Heidegger, Mehta also found the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jacques Derrida compelling. By the 1970s, however, Mehta’s thoughts were turning more and more toward cross-cultural encounter and the problems of comparative philosophy and comparative philosophy of religion. This work in the 1970s set the stage for Mehta’s final turn back to the Indian materials. Indeed, in the last decade of his life, Mehta trained his eye on various, classical texts of Hinduism, for example, the ègveda, Mahàbhàrata, and Bhàgavata Puràõa. His biography thus reveals a journey from India to the West and back again; a centrifugality particularly fitting for a hermeneut. The chapter closes with a consideration of Mehta’s exhortations for his fellow Indians to resuscitate the Hindu tradition in the light of a critique of Western metaphysics as well as a brief review of peer commendation.
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Notes
- 1.
This quote is taken from the memorial remarks Diana Eck delivered at Mehta’s funeral on July 17, 1988. I will also garner citations from the remarks of Wilfred C. Smith and John B. Carman from the same service. I received this material while doing research at Mehta’s home in Jabalpur. Mrs. Vimala Mehta kindly allowed me to photocopy this unpublished material.
- 2.
Eck’s memorial remarks.
- 3.
My thanks to William J. Jackson for sending me this personal correspondence he had with Mehta. The quotation, and ones following, is taken from a letter written to Jackson on the twelfth of January 1987. Most of the letter can be found in Jackson (1992b).
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
Jackson writes, “The varieties of philosophies and religions for Mehta were important – they offer ‘vast alternatives lurking’ to ambush reductionist moderns, ‘modes of importance’ which could help safeguard against dogmatism which paralyzes self-criticism and halts the evolution of new concepts. He practiced a kind of postmodern syādvāda or ‘somehowism’. Somehow each of these outlooks has a valuable point.” (1992a: 5) Syādvāda is a term taken from Jainism, an epistemological position consonant with Jainism’s emphasis on ahiṛsā, or ‘non-violence’.
- 6.
Letter written to Jackson.
- 7.
Ibid.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
I want to draw attention to the words “friend” and “initiative” because these will ultimately play philosophically conceptual roles in Mehta’s work on the cross-cultural encounter as well as the Hindu Tradition. For now, it suffices to take note of the role they play here.
- 10.
Taken from a personal conversation on July 5, 1999.
- 11.
On the prominent topic of darśan in South Asian traditions see D. L. Eck, Darśan: Seeing the Divine Image in India, 3rd ed. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
- 12.
The reason for his early return was not disclosed to me during my conversations with Mrs. Mehta and the Mandlois.
- 13.
Personal correspondence.
- 14.
Smith’s memorial remarks, see footnote 1.
- 15.
This is taken from the syllabus for the course, “The Problem of Understanding” given at the Harvard Divinity School Spring of 1969.
- 16.
John B. Carman suggests that it is with the 1968 publication of “Problems of Inter-cultural Understanding in University Studies of Religion” in Ānvīkśikī: Research Bulletin of the Centre of Advanced Study in Philosophy that we see the first evidence of this turning. I want to thank John B. Carman for re-drawing my attention to this important piece. This essay is reprinted in IW, 114–134.
- 17.
John B. Carman’s memorial address, see footnote 1.
- 18.
As a last glimpse into the thought of J. L. Mehta, I can note that in his briefcase at the time were copies of Derrida’s Margins of Philosophy and The Truth in Painting, Bateson & Bateson’s Angels Fear, Eckel’s Jnanagarbha’s Commentary on the Distinction between the Two Truths, Nagatomi’s Sanskrit and Indian Studies: Essays in Honor of Daniel H. H. Ingalls, Narayan’s The Way and the Goal, and Bachelard’s On Poetic Imagination and Reverie.
- 19.
This was taken from an article saved by Mrs. Mehta and the Mandlois. There are no further references.
- 20.
This is cited in Jackson’s prelude to J. L. Mehta on Heidegger, Hermeneutics, and Indian Tradition, page 1. Galanter reviewed the only book Mehta published (outside of his dissertation) while he was still alive, that is, India and the West: The Problem of Understanding. Jackson notes, “A critic reviewing J.L. Mehta’s book India and the West: The Problem of Understanding missed, I believe, a good deal of Mehta’s intent and accomplishment.” The review is in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 54:2 (1986), 383–384. Galanter is the author of Law and Society in Modern India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989).
- 21.
I thank Jackson for sending me a portion of his unpublished memoirs from which this quote is taken.
- 22.
W. J. Jackson, prelude to J. L. Mehta on Heidegger, Hermeneutics, and Indian Tradition, ed. W. J. Jackson, 12.
- 23.
Once again, this is taken from Jackson’s memoirs.
References
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Ellis, T.B. (2013). From Banaras to the West and Back. In: On the Death of the Pilgrim: The Postcolonial Hermeneutics of Jarava Lal Mehta. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 3. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5231-3_2
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