Classical Sanskrit Research Articles

The Characteristics of Meter in Verse Portions of the <i>Saddharmapuṇḍarīka</i>: With Comparisons to Similar Verses in Early Buddhist Texts

The text of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka （SP） is written in a mixture of Middle Indo-Āryan （MIA）, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and Classical Sanskrit （Skt.）. For this reason, the early version of SP has been thought to have been compiled in MIA and then Sanskritized as it was handed down through time. However, there are many objections, and a unified view has not been arrived at yet.

Meter and Performance

Meter and Performance

Ethics in Classical Hindu Philosophy: Provinces of Consequence, Agency, and Value in the Bhagavad Gītā and Other Epic and Śāstric Texts

The idea of a univocal property of ‘goodness’ is not clearly found in classical Sanskrit sources; instead, a common ethical strategy was to clarify the ontological nature of the self or world in such a way that ethical implications naturally flow from the adjustment in our thinking. This article gives a synoptic reading of sources that treat features of ethics—dispositions, agents, causal systems of effect, and even values themselves—as emergent phenomena grounded in complex, shifting, porous configurations. One conclusion of this was that what ‘goodness’ entails varies according to the scope and context of our concern. Firstly, we examine how the Bhagavad Gītā fashions a utilitarianism that assumes no universal intrinsically valuable goal or Good, but aims only to sustain the world as a prerequisite for choice. Recognising that this pushes problems of identifying the Good onto the individual; secondly, we look at accounts of malleable personhood in the Caraka Saṃhitā and Book 12 of the Mahābhārata. Finally, the aesthetic theory of the Nāṭya Śāstra hints at a context-constituted conception of value itself, reminding us that evaluative emotions are themselves complex, curate-able, and can expand beyond egoism to encompass interpersonal concerns. Together these sources show aspects of an ethical worldview for which each case is a nexus in a larger ethical fabric. Each tries to pry us away from our most personal concerns, so we can reach beyond the ego to do what is of value for a wider province of which we are a part.

The Breathing Body, Whistling Flute, and Sonic Divine: Oneness and Distinction in Bengal Vaishnavism’s Devotional Aesthetics

This paper studies complex narratives connecting the Hindu deity Krishna, his melodious flute, and the porous, sonic human body in the popular devotional sect, Bengal Vaishnavism. From the devotee–lover responding to Krishna’s flute call outside, envying the flute’s privileged position on Krishna’s lips, to becoming the deity’s flute through yogic breath–sound fusions—texts abound with nuanced relations of equivalence and differentiation among the devotee–flute–god. Based primarily on readings of Hindu religious texts, and fieldwork in Bengal among makers/players of the bamboo flute, the paper analyses theological constructions correlating body–flute–divinity. Lying at the confluence of yogic, tantric, and devotional thought, the striking conceptual problem about the flute in Bengal Vaishnavism is: are the body, flute and divinity distinct or the same? I argue that the flute’s descriptions in both classical Sanskrit texts and popular oral lore and performances draw together ostensibly opposed religious paradigms of Yoga (oneness with divinity) and passionate devotion/bhakti (difference): its fine, airy feeling fusing with the body’s inner breathing self, and sweet melody producing a subservient temperament towards the lover–god outside. Flute sounds embody the peculiar dialectic of difference-and-identity among devotee–flute–god, much like the flute–lip-lock itself, bringing to affective life the Bengal Vaishnava philosophical foundation of achintya-bhed-abhed (inconceivability between principles of separation and indistinction).

Gaulish Warriors and Finnish Shoes

Abstract OIr. cing ‘hero’ and cingid ‘steps (marches)’ are reflected in the aristocratic Gaulish name Cingetorix ‘king of marchers (warriors), heroes’. These Celtic tokens, altogether lacking in Italic, have sometimes been considered reflexes of IE *(s)keng- which appears in Classical Sanskrit as khā̆ñjati ‘limps’ and in Greek as σκάζω ‘limp’. It has also been argued that late prehistoric Germanic borrowed a Celtic *kanxsto- ‘stepper, trotter’ (or the like) which it deployed in equestrian terms; so, for example, Old English hengest, hengst ‘gelding, horse’. The pejorative ‘limping’ sense of IE *(s)keng-, which is still maintained in German hinken, was mistakenly thought to have been ameliorated in Celtic allowing cingid to express ‘to step, proceed go, stride, march’. Here, however, it is shown that, other than in loans from Germanic, Celtic lacked reflexes of IE *(s)keng-. It is then demonstrated that Celtic *keng-, as in OIr. cingid, was derived by dissimilation of IE *g̑hengh- ‘to go, stride, ride’. Finally, it is remarked that Proto-Finnic borrowed Proto-Germanic *skenka- < IE *(s)keng- and adapted it as *kenkä > Finnish kenkä / kengä ‘shoe/boot (anything resembling a shoe in function, a heavy boot … for walking or striding in snow)’.

Framing Lear’s fool in Indian films: ‘Doth any here know me?’

This article examines three Indian films based on King Lear through their reconfigured framing of the Fool: Gunasundari Katha (Tale of the Virtuous Woman, 1949, Telugu), Rui Ka Bojh (Weight of Cotton, 1997, Hindi), and Natsamrat (Actor King, 2016, Marathi). Though the nature and role of the Fool in the play is much debated, this essay argues that he is central and his treatment reflects the divergent views the films take on Shakespeare’s tragedy. The fact that the Fool is also a familiar figure in Indian drama, from the classical Sanskrit, medieval folk and modern plays, conditions the transpositions of the intercultural adaptations.

Who by Fire

The Pururava-caritai (‘The Adventures of Pururavas’) is an unstudied sixteenth-century Tamil adaptation of the famous Vedic legend of Pururavas, which introduces an extensive addition to the original story. One episode within this supplement narrates a trial by fire gone through by the protagonist’s wife, which draws heavily on a similar episode from the Ramayana epic, both in Valmiki’s classical Sanskrit version and in Kampan’s twelfth-century Tamil retelling. This article sheds new light on the ways in which classical literary gender roles and gender models were reimagined in premodern south India. I argue that the re-articulation of the epic fire-ordeal in the Pururava-caritai is a critical reflection on the feminine model that the Ramayana heroine, Sita, represents. I show that, through a synthesis of classical and folk motifs, the author has created an implicit intertextual dialogue that concludes with a complex matrix of values of ‘proper’ femininity and ‘true’ divinity.

How Not to Read like a Victorian: Reimagining Bankim’s Reader in Nineteenth-Century Bengali Novels

AbstractThis article examines the novels of the nineteenth-century Bengali author Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay in light of classical Sanskrit literature and the rasa theory and argues that practices of Sanskrit kāvya literature are as dominant in the structural and aesthetic elements of the Bengali novel as are Western forms of novel production. The arguments are located in the reader to suggest that Bankim’s novels train readers to read the Sanskrit past as encoded in the text and as coexisting with the westernized colonial present, albeit in a difficult relationship. The article pays particular attention to the novelist’s adaptation of two forms of Sanskrit prose, the kathā and the ākhyāyikā, and his exploration of the śṛngāra (erotic) rasa. While the Bengali novel emerges after the introduction of its Victorian counterpart, the former is a product of engagement with tensions foreign to the British novel. Exploring this alternative reading practice provides an opportunity to understand how Bengali and Sanskrit—in terms of literature and culture—are part of the lived experience of both Bankim and his nineteenth-century readers, and part of the aesthetic and ethical foundation of the early Bengali novel.

Ascertaining Role of ‘Agni’ in the Intervention of Health and Disease

All eight branches of Ayurveda encompass a common fundamental line of treatment known as Kayachikitsa, which literally means “treatment of Agni” (Kaya means Agni, Chikitsa means treatment). The classical Ayurvedic texts have postulated the role of a balanced state of Agni for sustaining life, imbalanced state of Agni for causing disease, and diminished state of Agni for leading to the diminishment of life. The Classics have designated critical terminology pertaining to relevant outcome criteria to explicitly express the significance of Agni in nourishing life and intervening health, disease as well as death. For example, Sama (balanced state of Agni) signifies traits of health; Dushti (imbalanced state of Agni affected by one, two or all the three dosha) signifies the diseases; and Shant (diminished/vanished Agni) reveals the cause and symptom of death. For diagnostic accuracy in the management of health and disease, practitioners should rely on assessments of Agni. Ascertaining the role of Agni is needed within any system of medicine, beginning with patient assessment and continuing through differential diagnosis of the disease, and therapeutic absorption of medicine to treatment outcome. Incorporating evidence of Agni strength into the diagnosis of disease provides vital information about treatment outcome criteria and recovery markers. Identifying Agni has implications for herbal combinations, pharmaceuticals used in Panchakarma (Pancha means five, karma means procedures, Panchakarma means five detoxification procedures), supplementary pharmaceuticals, and specific applications for clinicians, pharmacists and researchers. Further research into Agni may provide insights into autoimmune disease and sustainable health that could have been previously unrecognized by much of the medical community. This research article aims to break the language barrier by clearly defining classical Sanskrit words, providing authentic, approachable Ayurvedic information, and making such concepts accessible globally for both Ayurvedic and non-Ayurvedic scholars. Dosha are the Ayurvedic functional anatomical considerations; they have the ability to contaminate in an imbalance state. Vata, Pitta and Kapha are the three dosha; collectively called as Tridosha and independently can be addressed as dosha.

Rasāsvāda: A Comparative Approach to Emotion and the Self

This paper explores the philosophy of emotion in classical India. Although some scholars have endeavored to develop a systematic philosophy of emotion based on rasa theory, no serious effort has been made to read the relationship between emotion and the self in light of rasa theory. This exclusion, I argue, is an outcome of a broader presupposition that the 'self' in classical Indian philosophies is outside the scope of emotion. A fresh reading of classical Sanskrit texts finds this premise baseless. With an underlying assumption that emotion and self are inherently linked, this paper explores similarities between the Indian and Chinese approaches.

Singing a(n) (a)laukika body:

Utprekṣā or ‘ascription’ is one of the foremost devices in classical Sanskrit literature, with importance secondary only to upamā and rūpaka. In contrast to other figures extensively analysed by the theoretical treatises over centuries, it was characterised by a surprising uniformity in regard to its definition as offered by the ālaṃkārikas. The paper provides a brief overview of this device and its practical application in a 16th century mahākāvya, the Pāṇḍyakulodaya.

Like a Bee to Nectar: Abhinavagupta’s Poetics of Religious Formation

Through a study of Abhinavagupta’s deployment of the metaphor of a bee in search of nectar, this article reconstructs a model of religious education implicit in Abhinavagupta’s representation of his own career as a student and guru. Based on a brief examination of the symbolism of the bee in classical Sanskrit poetry, the article elucidates how Abhinavagupta creatively implements prominent themes in this trope. Abhinavagupta’s use of the bee motif powerfully evokes his own liberal engagement with the intellectual culture and religious worlds of medieval Kashmir, and this educational ideal arguably carries prescriptive force for a qualified and sensitive audience. In considering the bee imagery across Abhinavagupta’s corpus, one encounters a vision of revelation that invites students to relish an all-encompassing truth present in all traditions as their essence, like a fragrance permeating a flower.

Eastern Poetry by Western Poets: Powys Mathers’ ‘Translations’ of Sanskrit Erotic Lyrics

This essay focuses on a pivotal (if understudied) moment in the history of the translation and reception of Sanskrit erotic poetry in the West – a moment which sees the percolation of this classical poetry from the scholarly sphere to that of non-specialist literature. I argue that a crucial agent in the dissemination and inclusion of Sanskrit erotic poems in the canon of Western lyric poetry was the English poet Edward Powys Mathers (1892–1939), a self-professed second-hand translator of ‘Eastern’ literature, as well as the author of original verses, which he smuggled as translations. Using Black Marigolds (a 1919 English version of the Caurapañcāśikā) as a case study, I show how Powys Mathers’ renderings – which combined the practices of second-hand and pseudo-translation – are intertextually dense poems. On the one hand, Black Marigolds shows in watermark the intermediary French translation; on the other, it functions as a hall of mirrors which reflects, magnifies and distorts the emotional and aesthetic dimensions of both the classical/Eastern and modern/Western literary world. What does the transformation of the Caurapañcāśikā into a successful piece of modern(ist) lyric poetry tell us about the relationship that Western readers wished (and often still wish) to have with ‘Eastern’ poetry? Furthermore, which conceptual tools can we mobilize to ‘make sense’ of these non-scholarly translations of classical Sanskrit poems and ‘take seriously’ their many layers of textual and contextual meaning?

A Preliminary Study of Yoga Tourism and its Prospects in Nepal

This article attempts to reveal the prospects of yoga tourism in Nepal. Yoga is gaining popularity worldwide due to its inherent quality to transform a person from illness to wellness. This is the reason yoga tourism is studied in academia under the umbrella term of wellness tourism. There are potentialities how Nepal can be one of the best destinations for yoga tourism. Nepal is spiritually saturated country being the birthplace of Gautama Buddha and playground of Lord Shiva, the Yogishwara. At the same time, Nepal is a Himalayan country including the highest mountain, Mt. Everest. The cultural heritage is another attraction. The simplicity of people attracts tourists who aim to learn yoga practices while visiting places for refreshment. This article has dealt about how yoga tourism is spreading, what are its theoretical and philosophical background, prospects and potentialities and so on. The major methodology applied in this article is library research, case studies and visiting actual places where yoga tourists from all over the world gather. Yoga retreat survey has revealed actual scenario of yoga tourism. Historicity of yoga philosophy is uncovered using original Classical Sanskrit Cannons. A sample survey identified yoga retreat centers in Kathmandu, the facilities available and potential aspects of tourism and income generation. The finding section documented the actual problems and prospects faced by the hosts, i.e., travel agencies, owners of yoga retreat centers, hoteliers, and yoga masters. The research has reached in conclusion: if right policies and facilities are generated, Nepal will gain a new identity as best destination for yoga tourism in the world. There are potentialities to develop internal yoga tourism as well. One can visualize Nepal being famous and prosperous from yoga tourism and Nepalese people gaining health, wealth and wellbeing by living yogic lifestyle and collecting reputation as yoga masters by guiding tourists into yoga life.

The Locus of Creativity in Classical Performing Arts: Economics and Intellectual Property in Theatre Management

The major challenge facing performing arts in general and classical dance theatres in particular is about inducing and protecting 'creative aesthetic expression'. In this paper it is argued, that a classical dance theatre of the 21st century will be able to sustain itself in the long run, only if it can realize the economic value of its creative capital, through appropriate product pricing strategies and IP Protection tools. The initial section of the paper seeks to distinguish the 'creative aesthetic expression' element in Classical Dances from its 'technical virtuosity'. The focus of the paper thereafter shifts to possible philosophical and functional trajectories of repertoire driven theatres. The paper then proceeds to consider the micro-economic and intellectual property implications of these trajectories. Here the effort is to understand the 'pricing' strategies of 'repertoire deepening' and 'repertoire widening' classical dance theatres. The paper seeks to bring out the latent Brand Value of a classical dance theatre in terms of its product pricing dynamics. The paper finally delves on the ideal of 'creative commons' as a brand equity optimizing tool. It is argued that the ideal of 'creative commons', if applied to the creative assets of a classical dance theatre, can deliver optimum benefits not only to the theatre and its artistes but also to the country to which the art/dance form belongs. The paper bases its analysis by drawing upon the examples of Classical Russian Ballet and India’s classical Sanskrit Dance form, 'Koodiyattom'.

The Metaphor of Boundary Crossing in Classical Sanskrit Literature

The paper deals with the metaphor the non-physical boundaries are physical boundaries in Classical Sanskrit literature (kāvya), especially in the mahākāvya (sargabandha) or the court epic genre. Several selected instances of the usage of this metaphor are analysed here in detail in their various contexts. In the stanzas discussed in the paper, the metaphor is skillfully elaborated by the authors: a man staying within/breaking/crossing the boundaries of law and/or propriety (maryādā) is most frequently metaphorically conceptualized as the ocean, normally staying within the boundaries of its shoreline (maryādā/velā) but violently overflowing them during universal destruction (pralaya).

Shakespeare's Ariel versus Kālidāsa's Yaksha: Revisiting a comparative study from 19th century Bengal

AbstractMy article considers how a lesser‐known Bengali periodical essay of 1884 capitalises on the canonical eminence of Shakespeare's Ariel to establish by contrast the aesthetic and ethical merits of the unnamed yaksha, a semidivine being who forms the protagonist of Kālidāsa's poem Meghadūtam (4th–5th centuries CE). Comparison between Shakespeare and Kālidāsa, the classical Sanskrit poet and dramatist, has been a commonplace of Bengali literary criticism in the 19th century, with inputs from such luminaries as Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (1887) and Rabindranath Tagore (1907). While the poet Hemchandra Bandyopadhyay eulogised Shakespeare with the aphorism Bhārater Kālidās, jagater tumi (“You are to the world what Kālidāsa is to India”), the other acts of comparison (including the essay's in question) are not so unqualified and effusive. The essay, entitled “Ariel o Yaksha” (Ariel and the Yaksha) and written by one Bishnucharan Chattopadhyay, plays a clever game in that it starts by accepting Shakespeare as a universal favourite and enlists his character Ariel as a yardstick for assessing the yaksha but it then goes on to expose tacitly the bestiality and impetuosity of Ariel when compared with what it finds to be the higher instincts of the yaksha. The essay thus engineers a reversal of the dominant critical opinion by puncturing the aura of nobility ascribed to Ariel and countering the allegation of base sensuality often levelled against Kālidāsa's lovesick yaksha. It attempts an ethical re‐evaluation of Kālidāsa's yaksha and shows Kālidāsa to be more edifying than is often suggested by commentators. The essay gestures towards a nativist and traditionalist agenda but does not fully enunciate it or subscribe to it, thus exemplifying the ambivalence inherent in the (post)colonial modernity of 19th‐century Bengal.

A Critical Analysis on “Revolution 2020” - An Amalgam of Socio- Political Commercialization World Combined with Love Triangle

Literature is considered to be an art form or writing that have Artistic or Intellectual value. Literature is a group of works produced by oral and written form. Literature shows the style of Human Expression. The word literature was derived from the Latin root word ‘Litertura / Litteratura’ which means “Letter or Handwriting”. Literature is culturally relative defined. Literature can be grouped through their Languages, Historical Period, Origin, Genre and Subject. The kinds of literature are Poems, Novels, Drama, Short Story and Prose. Fiction and Non-Fiction are their major classification. Some types of literature are Greek literature, Latin literature, German literature, African literature, Spanish literature, French literature, Indian literature, Irish literature and surplus. In this vast division, the researcher has picked out Indian English Literature. Indian literature is the literature used in Indian Subcontinent. The earliest Indian literary works were transmitted orally. The Sanskrit oral literature begins with the gatherings of sacred hymns called ‘Rig Veda’ in the period between 1500 - 1200 B.C. The classical Sanskrit literature was developed slowly in the earlier centuries of the first millennium. Kannada appeared in 9th century and Telugu in 11th century. Then, Marathi, Odiya and Bengali literatures appeared later. In the early 20th century, Hindi, Persian and Urdu literature begins to appear.

Etymology and Semantic Spectrum of adhimukti and Related Terms in Buddhist Texts

The action noun adhimukti derives from the verb adhi-muc, not attested in Classical Sanskrit but in P?li. It is regularly used in the passive, with the original meaning ‘to be fastened to’, and then ‘to adhere’. This meaning is not used in a concrete sense, but in a metaphorical one, referred to mind and mental objects, so that adhimukti can be used to express inclination, faith in a doctrine, and also intentional and stable representation of an image or an idea in meditative practice, sometimes with the effect of transformation of external reality. The common feature appears to be adherence or the fixing of the mind on its object.

Dating Sanskrit texts using linguistic features and neural networks

Abstract Deriving historical dates or datable stratifications for texts in Classical Sanskrit, such as the epics Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa, is a considerable challenge for text-historical research. This paper provides empirical evidence for subtle but noticeable diachronic changes in the fundamental linguistic structures of Classical Sanskrit, and argues that Classical Sanskrit shows enough diachronic variation for dating texts on the basis of linguistic developments. Building on this evidence, it evaluates machine learning algorithms that predict approximate dates of composition for Sanskrit texts. The paper introduces the required background, discusses the relevance of linguistic features for temporal classification, and presents a text-historical evaluation of Book 6 of the Mahābhārata, whose historical stratification is disputed in Indological research.