[INDOLOGY] recent publications: conference reports over 2011-12, 2012-13, 2013-14

Tue Dec 15 04:33:24 UTC 2015

Dear Jan,

Thank you very much for your reply and for the link to the conference
reports. I see what you mean about the adhyātman interpretation of indra.
The three additional verses that the Āśvalāyana-Saṃhitā of the Ṛgveda adds
to hymn 6.44 (= Ṛgveda khila 2.12.1-3) do indeed make this clear.

For those who may be following this, but who do not have access to the Āśval
āyana-Saṃhitā, I here paste in those three verses from the GRETIL digital
text of the Scheftelowitz edition of the khilani. I have put in brackets
two corrections from comparison with the Āśvalāyana text. Note also that
2,12.1c is not in the Āśvalāyana text.

RvKh_2,12.1a: cakṣuś.ca.śrotram.ca.manaś.ca.vāk.ca.pr
<http://xn--jga.ca.xn--rotram-2ib.ca.xn--mana-o5a.ca.xn--vk-dla.ca.pr>
āṇa.apāṇau.deha.idam.śarīram./
RvKh_2,12.1b:
dvau.pratyañcāv.anulomau.visargāv.ed[t]an.tam.manye.daśa.yantram.utsam./
RvKh_2,12.1c: ya.ānayat.parāvataḥ.//15.(.p.84.).
RvKh_2,12.2a:
uraś.ca.pṛṣṭhaś.ca.karau.ca.bāhū.jaṃghe.ca.ūrū.udaram.śiraś.ca./
RvKh_2,12.2b:
romāṇi.māṃsam.rudhira.asthi.majjam.etat.śarīram.jala.budbuda.upamam./
RvKh_2,12.3a:
bhruvau.lalāṭe.ca.tathā.ca.karṇau.hanū.kapolau.chubukas.tathā.ca./
RvKh_2,12.3b: oṣṭhau.ca.dantāś.ca.tathaiva.jihvā.me.tat.[jihvām.etat.
]śarīram.mukha.ratna.kośam.//

Likewise, I add B. B. Chaubey's English translation of them, from his
translation of all the additional mantras of the Āśvalāyana text, given at
the end of his edition.

6.44.25. I consider this body consisting of the eye, the ear, the mind, the
speech, the two vital breaths--the prana and apana--, the form (deha), the
two creations--inverted and direct--as the tenfold water-raising-machine.

6.44.26. This body--consisting of the heart, the back, the two palms, the
two arms, the two thighs, the two breasts, the belly, the head, the hair,
the flesh, the blood, the bone, the marrow--is just like a bubble in the
water.

6.44.27. (I consider) this head, consisting of the two eye-brows on the
forehead, the two ears, the two jaws, the two cheeks, the chin, the two
lips, the teeth, the tongue as the treasurehouse of gems in the body.

So as you say, Jan, indra is here the lord of the body. Thanks for pointing
this out, and for all the relevant references. I look forward to reading
the expanded English version that you are preparing.

Best regards,

David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.

On Mon, Dec 14, 2015 at 8:45 AM, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear David,
> Thanks for your feedback. In fact, if you go to
> http://ashp.revues.org/1748 you should have direct access to the
> conference reports.
> In the course of time I will place a copy on my Academia.edu page.
> For Indra I am also preparing an expanded English version of my argument.
> In the conference report, the relevant portions are paragraphs 28-32,
> where you find quotations of / references to some of the relevant verses
> and passages (RV, RVkhila, Asvalayana-samhita, Aitareya-Aranayaka, Panini,
> Kasika). Although the "modern" Vedānta-style adhyātman interpretation of
> the Vedas is grafted on the ancient one recognized in the old Brahmanas,
> Aranyakas and the Nirukta (next to and often co-occurring with adhidaiva,
> adhiyajña and aitihāsika interpretations), the two are to be sharply
> distinguished. As for the adhyātman interpretation I found for Indra and
> which is reflected in the word indriya (including its curious use in the
> term indriya-sthāna in Ayurveda), there is nothing particularly Vedāntic
> about it: it could equally fit a Vaisesika or Sāmkhya view on the soul or
> self.
> Best regards,
> Jan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> *Jan E.M. HOUBEN*
>
> Directeur d’Études
>
> Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite
>
> *École Pratique des Hautes Études*
>
> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>
> 54, rue Saint-Jacques
>
> CS 20525 – 75005 Paris
>
> johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr
>
> https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
>
> www.ephe.fr
>
>
> On 14 December 2015 at 03:32, David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Jan,
>>
>> Your first point is of much interest to me: "1. Already in Vedic times
>> the name/concept índra was meant to be open to an adhyātman interpretation
>> which is largely neglected in modern accounts although it was lexicalized
>> in some derivations and by grammarians understood in that way." I do not at
>> present have access to this conference report of yours. Could you briefly
>> summarize, if possible, the adhyātman interpretation of indra? Thanks.
>>
>> In modern times there was an attempted resuscitation of the adhyātman
>> interpretation of the Vedas by Vasudeva S. Agrawala, who wrote in English,
>> and his teacher Madhusudana Ojha, who wrote in Sanskrit (in verse, too hard
>> for me to understand). Agrawala regarded the adhyātman as one of the
>> ancient schools of Vedic interpretation that Yāska referred to in his
>> *Nirukta*, but that had long ago fallen into oblivion. However, I did
>> not notice any essay by Agrawala specifically on indra.
>>
>> Best regards,
>>
>> David Reigle
>> Colorado, U.S.A.
>>
>> On Sat, Dec 12, 2015 at 3:16 PM, Jan E.M. Houben <jemhouben at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear List members,
>>>
>>> Since conferences at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes combine
>>> teaching with original research, EPHE conference reports may contain
>>> contributions of interest to those working in the respective fields.
>>>
>>> Three points may be singled out from my conference reports over 2011-12,
>>> 2012-13, 2013-14 (http://ashp.revues.org/1748).
>>>
>>> 1. Already in Vedic times the name/concept índra was meant to be open to
>>> an adhyātman interpretation which is largely neglected in modern accounts
>>> although it was lexicalized in some derivations and by grammarians
>>> understood in that way.
>>> 2. Pānini's Astādhyāyī, understood as a reconstitutive grammar (rather
>>> than as a "wildly generative" grammar), shows a "triple dichotomy"
>>> structure; the first dichotomy is the one into:
>>> (A) the first part (chapters 1-5), which provides elementary conceptual
>>> tools and (through the gaṇas: ALL) linguistic elements needed for PARSING a
>>> preliminary Vedic or current statement (which may show some variation,
>>> expected to be mostly within the range of Vedic and then current
>>> Sanskrit-Prakrit usage)
>>> (B) and the second part (chapters 6-8), which gives the rules for the
>>> prakriya "progressive development" of the form, including its accentuation
>>> (this includes the remaining gaṇas concerning mostly accentuation,
>>> cerebralisation, lengthening, vrddhi), as finally used in the (verified or
>>> perfected, samskrta) language utterance.
>>> 3. Both the unduly neglected shorter Vrtti (I propose to call it
>>> laghuvrtti) and the longer vrtti (brhatī) give information on the teachings
>>> of Bhartrhari author of the Vakyapadiya, but neither the one nor the other
>>> provides a secure access to his statements:
>>> only the karikas, i.a. because of their tight inner structure involving
>>> regularities of syntax, metrics and sense,  have a reasonable chance to
>>> have reliably traversed the centuries and the transfer from mss to mss,
>>> although even here, as is well known, we find a relatively small number of
>>> textual problems.
>>>
>>> Since not everyone may easily read French, I have introduced an
>>> innovation in the report by summarizing, for each year, some original point
>>> in the form of one or two sanskrit verses.
>>> This may contribute to demonstrate the wide expressive function not
>>> limited to any specific conviction or worldview which Sanskrit has (and
>>> which it has fulfilled over the centuries), next to its well known archival
>>> function which has been (passionately but still insufficiently) explored in
>>> two centuries of indology.
>>>
>>> Jan Houben
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> *Jan E.M. HOUBEN*
>>>
>>> Directeur d’Études
>>>
>>> Sources et histoire de la tradition sanskrite
>>>
>>> *École Pratique des Hautes Études*
>>>
>>> *Sciences historiques et philologiques *
>>>
>>> 54, rue Saint-Jacques
>>>
>>> CS 20525 – 75005 Paris
>>>
>>> johannes.houben at ephe.sorbonne.fr
>>>
>>> https://ephe-sorbonne.academia.edu/JanEMHouben
>>>
>>> www.ephe.fr
>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>
>>
>

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