From Banaras to the West and Back

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 cui 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 egveda, Mahabharata, and Bhagavata Puraoa. 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.