[INDOLOGY] J?ti as Caste in Ny?ya?

[Nagaraj Paturi]

1. While the discussion of Jayanta is mentioned to be on Varnas, the title
of the post /thread has 'caste' in it. Since it is now well established
that these two are two different categories /concepts, we might need to be
careful about this distinction.

2. For Nyaya, gotva is as much a jaati as  ghaTatva is jaati. ghaTatvajaati
is as much empirically observable and directly perceivable as
gotvajaati.

3. Those mentioned by Jayanta are not saying BraahmaNatva etc. are not like
gotva etc. They are saying exactly the opposite. They are saying 'because
braahmanatva etc. are not like gotva etc. the validity of what all Brahmins
have in common can be verified / known only through a different source of
knowledge than the one that can establish what all cows have in common.

On Thu, Jun 16, 2016 at 10:10 PM, Johannes Bronkhorst <
johannes.bronkhorst at unil.ch> wrote:

> Vincent Eltschinger’s *« Caste » et philosophie bouddhique* (Vienna 2000)
> seems relevant in this connection. An English version of this book is also
> available:
>
> *Caste and Buddhist Philosophy: Continuity of Some Buddhist Arguments
> Against the Realist Interpretation of Social Denominations* (Motilal
> Banarsidass 2012)
> Johannes
>
> On 16 juin 2016, at 18:37, rajam <rajam at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Many thanks to the originator of this thread!
>
> Right now, I just want to register the fact that I’m very much interested
> in this topic.
>
> Last year (May 2015), I had a publication (in Tamil) about references to,
> or a lack there of, “jāti” and “caste” (as we understand it today) in Old
> Tamil literature/grammar, also known as Sangam literature/grammar.
>
> I don’t know how many of you are aware of the fact that the English
> word “caste” has its origin in the Portuguese word “casta,” which was first
> recorded in *Arte da Lingua Malabar* written by Fr. Henrique Henriques in
> the mid-16th century.
>
> If one wants to dig deep into the understanding of the terms such as
> “jāti” and “caste” … one has to have a minimal understanding of the origins
> of the Western contact with India, which happened in the early 16-th
> century through Portuguese arrival in South India.
>
> Thanks and regards,
> V.S.Rajam
>
>
> On Jun 16, 2016, at 8:53 AM, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> ​Dear Don,
>
> This interests me a lot, and I'd be grateful to read what you might write
> about it in future.  It's on my back-burner, but I've long wondered whether
> Sanskritic narratives about jati and varna can be thought about in ways
> similar to eighteenth and nineteenth century European narratives about
> races and species.  Were people of different varnas formally considered to
> be of different "species?"   It's a bit shocking to think in these terms,
> but I've been wondering about it.  If you ever put flesh on these bones,
> one way or another, or can point me to existing discussions on this, I'd be
> really interested.
>
> Best,
> Dominik
>
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk* <http://ualberta.academia.edu/DominikWujastyk>
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> Department of History and Classics
> <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
> University of Alberta, Canada
>
> On 16 June 2016 at 08:53, Donald R Davis <drdj at austin.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
>> Dear Colleagues,
>>
>> I would be grateful for additional references to an argument mentioned in
>> Jayanta Bhatta’s *Āgamaḍambara* 4.143-4 (in Dezso’s edition in the Clay
>> series).  The question is whether the *jāti* of Brahmins, etc. is like
>> the *jāti* of cow-ness, etc. in being empirically observable or directly
>> perceivable.  Jayanta refers to those who say that verbal/textual testimony
>> alone (*śabdamātreṇa*) establishes the four-*varṇa* system.  This
>> prefigures an argument made in Vijñāneśvara’s *Mitākṣarā* (on Yaj 1.90)
>> where the same distinction is drawn to refute an objection.
>>
>> I assumed Jayanta would have made a similar argument in his *
>> Nyāyamañjarī*, but I have not been able to locate it (probably because I
>> barely know the Nyāya literature).  If anyone could point me toward other
>> instances of this issue, whether in original sources or contemporary
>> research, I’d appreciate it.
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Don Davis
>> Dept of Asian Studies
>> University of Texas at Austin
>>
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-- 
Nagaraj Paturi

Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.

Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies

FLAME School of Communication and FLAME School of  Liberal Education,

(Pune, Maharashtra, INDIA )


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