The Epistemology of Difference: Caste and the Question of Natural Kinds in the Courts of Medieval India

Abstract

Abstract Philosophy mattered in medieval India, with philosophers serving as officials in the political landscape of the Paramāra and Cāḷukya states. And caste mattered for these philosophers. This article explores how three Jain philosophers writing in Sanskrit—Anantavīrya, Vādirāja and Prabhācandra—raised the question of how a convention created by humans could ultimately be considered real. These three epistemologists followed the Buddhist philosopher Dharmakīrti and his commentator Prajñākaragupta in critiquing the mimāṃsā position that took language and class categories to be eternal and unchanging. They took caste to be like language: a human product that is upheld by convention and history, but which has an immense impact in the world. They interrogated the possibility of cognizing a general class, and social class served as the foundation of their critiques. Turning to medieval disputes about the epistemology of caste provides an opportunity to revisit contemporary debates about the persistence of caste through changing evidentiary regimes in the colonial and post-colonial periods.