Sanskrit Debate : Vasubandhu’s "Vimsatika" versus Kumarila’s "Niralambanavada" Hardback
by William Cully Allen
Part of the South Asian Literature, Arts, and Culture Studies series
Hardback
Description
Sanskrit Debate: Vasubandhu’s ‘VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ’ versus KumÄrila’s ‘NirÄlambanavÄda’ illustrates the rules and regulations of classical Indian debate literature (pramÄnaÅ›Ästra) by introducing new translations of two Sanskrit texts composed in antithesis to each other’s tradition of thought and practice.
In the third century CE, Vasubandhu, a Buddhist philosopher-monk, proposed that the entire world of lived experience is a matter of mind only through his VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ (Twenty Verses).
In the seventh century CE, KumÄrila, a Hindu philosopher-priest, composed NirÄlambanavÄda (Non-Sensory Limit Debate) to establish the objective reality of objects by refuting Vasubandhu’s claim that objects experienced in waking life are not different from objects experienced in dreams.
KumÄrila rigorously employs formal rules and regulations of Indian logic and debate to demonstrate that Vasubandhu’s assertion is totally irrational and incoherent. VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ ranks among the world’s most misunderstood texts but KumÄrila’s historic refutation allows VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ to be read in its own text-historical context.
This compelling, radically revolutionary re-reading of VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ delineates a hermeneutic of humor indispensable to discerning its medicinal message.
In VÄ«mÅ›atikÄ, Vasubandhu employs the form of professional Sanskrit logic and debate as a guise and a ruse to ridicule the entire enterprise of Indian philosophy.
Vasubandhu critiques all Indian theories of epistemology and ontology and claims that both how we know and what we know are acts of the imagination.
Information
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Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:138 pages
- Publisher:Peter Lang Publishing Inc
- Publication Date:30/12/2014
- Category:
- ISBN:9781433117589
Information
-
Available to Order - This title is available to order, with delivery expected within 2 weeks
- Format:Hardback
- Pages:138 pages
- Publisher:Peter Lang Publishing Inc
- Publication Date:30/12/2014
- Category:
- ISBN:9781433117589