The Reuse of Texts in Indian Philosophy: Introduction

Freschi, Elisa

doi:10.1007/s10781-014-9232-9

Cited by 11 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…khya teachers. Indeed, there is a growing discourse on the implications of redaction, reuse, and allusive reasoning for Indian literature generally (Freschi and Maas 2017), more work is needed on the way this affects methods of philosophical reasoning in India (see (Freschi 2015) on textual-historical issues).…”

Section: The Ontology Of Value In Indian Philosophymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Frazier

2021

Religions

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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.

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Section: The Ontology Of Value In Indian Philosophymentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Frazier

2021

Religions

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“…652-653) (including an edition). 4 See in particular the collected papers in Freschi and Maas (2017) and Freschi (2015). Reuse can be called adaptive when an already existing, identifiable object-a building or, in the literary context, a (piece of) text-is adapted and reused by another author for his own purposes, which deviate from the The framework narrative of the Upaniṡad is exemplary here: the beginning of the Naciketas story is quoted verbatim from the TB, but is then continued with new textual material in order to adapt the story to the purpose of the text.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ritual, Self and Yoga: On the Ways and Goals of Salvation in the Kaṭha Upaniṣad

Haas

2019

J Indian Philos

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Throughout its history, the renowned Kat˙ha Upaniṡad has often been described as being both incoherent and contradictory. The aim of this paper is to show to what purpose the text was created. To this end, it discusses the connection of the three paths to salvation depicted in the text, viz. the Agnicayana (a powerful Vedic fire-ritual), the Upaniṡadic method of self-knowledge, and yoga. The first part retraces how in the Upaniṡads, the Agnicayana was transformed into a non-material or mental ritual and linked with self-knowledge. The second part analyses how the various salvation goals (heaven, the World of Brahman, liberation from rebirth) could be related to each other. First, the authors redefined the Agnicayana's salvation goal, heaven, to make it identical with liberation. Secondly, they introduced self-knowledge and yoga as alternative and equally powerful means to the same end. In practice, however, the new and world-negating methods were implied to be superior to the costly ritual from which they had drawn their authority. Thus, the authors of the Upaniṡad were more concerned with showing continuity between different religious approaches than upholding consistency of content.

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“…On textual reuse, seeFreschi 2015. 3 On Hemacandra's work and poetics, see, e.g., Upadhyay 1987 Kulkarni 2003: 91-96;and Tubb 1998.…”

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confidence: 99%