[INDOLOGY] Jati as Caste in Nyaya?

Tue Jun 21 01:54:14 UTC 2016

While perhaps a little off topic, below I have included what is an
interesting, contemporary inclusion to this discussion on jati, etc found
in NCERT's 12th grade high school text book. In chapter 3, pp 42-> .

This link will take you to the pdf of ch. 3.
http://epathshala.nic.in/wp-content/doc/book/flipbook/Class%20XII/12111-Indian%20Society-Sociology/Chapter%203/docs/Chapter%203.pdf

While there is nothing really 'new' here to add to this interesting
discussion I think it is interesting, nonetheless, to see how these ideas
find their way into school text books. The following is part of the text
from pp 42-43. However, the discussion goes on for a few pages.

p42
*As is well-known, the English word ‘caste’ is actually a borrowing from
the Portuguese casta, meaning pure breed. The word refers to a broad
institutional arrangement that in Indian languages (beginning with the
ancient Sanskrit) is referred to by two distinct terms, varna and jati.
Varna, literally ‘colour’, is the name given to a four-fold division of
society into brahmana, kshatriya, vaishya and shudra, though this excludes
a significant section of the population composed of the ‘outcastes’,
foreigners, slaves, conquered peoples and others, sometimes refered to as
the panchamas or fifth category. Jati is a generic term referring to
species or kinds of anything, ranging from inanimate objects to plants,
animals and human beings. Jati is the word most commonly used to refer to
the institution of caste in Indian languages, though it is interesting to
note that, increasingly, Indian language speakers are beginning to use the
English word ‘caste’.*

*The precise relationship between varna and jati has been the subject of
much speculation and debate among scholars. The most common interpretation
is to treat varna as a broad all-India aggregative classification, while
jati is taken to be a regional or local sub-classification involving a much
more complex system consisting of hundreds or even thousands of castes and
sub-castes. *

p43
*This means that while the four varna classification is common to all of
India, the jati hierarchy has more local classifications that vary from
region to region*.

All the best,

Patrick McCartney, PhD
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200

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On Fri, Jun 17, 2016 at 11:08 PM, Christophe Vielle <
christophe.vielle at uclouvain.be> wrote:

> Dear Don,
>
> The problem is also epistemologically discussed by the
> Prabhakara-mimamsaka Śālikanātha in the *Prakaraṇapañcikā*, *prakaraṇa* 4
> : *Jātinirṇaya*
>
>  See short abstract of this chapter in
>
> Potter K. H. éd. 2014, *Philosophy of Pūrva-**Mīmāṃsā*, Delhi,
> Encyclopedia of Indian Philosophies 16, pp. 308-309 (relying on Verpoorten
> and Pandurangi)
>
> The 1961 Benares edition of the PP is available here :
>
> http://www.new.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/383225
>
> (better scan than :
>
> http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/541509
>
> http://www.dli.ernet.in/handle/2015/311115  )
>
> Here below an extract of the Sansknet input on GRETIL
>
>
> http://gretil.sub.uni-goettingen.de/gretil/1_sanskr/6_sastra/3_phil/mimamsa/prakp04u.htm
>
>
> (…)
>
> tad idam apahastitam, yad āhuḥ
>
> "śabdatvam eva tattadasādhāraṇābhivyañjakadhvaninibandhanatayā
> nānāvarṇapeṇa viṣayībhavat tasya tasyārthasyāvagamāya kalpata" iti /
>
> *brāhmaṇatvādijāti*nirākaraṇam /
>
> anayaiva ca diśā brāhmaṇatvādijātir api nivāritā /
>
> nahi nānāstrīpuruṣavyaktiṣu
> puruṣatvādarthāntarabhūtamekamākāramātmasātkurvāntī matirāvirbhavati /
>
> nahi kṣatriyādibhyo vyāvartamānaṃ
> sakalabrāhmaṇeṣvanuvartamānamekamākāramaticiramanusandadhato 'pi budhyante /
>
> yadapyāhuḥ- 79yadyapyāpātasaṃjātayā dhiyā brāhmaṇyaṃ nāvasīyate, tathāpi
> brāhmaṇabhūtamātāpitṛsambandhānusandhānaprabhavāyāṃ banddhau taccakāstīti /
>
> tadapi ca svamānasavisaṃvādi /
>
> anusandadhāno 'pi mātāpitṛsambandhaṃ ko jātvekamākāramavaboddhuṃ
> prabhavati /
>
> yaccopadarśitam---yathā vilīnamājyaṃ tailādavyatiricyamānaṃ
> gandhagrahaṇasahakāriṇā cakṣuṣaiva bhinnamavagamtaya---iti /
>
> tadapi na sundaram /
>
> nahi tadānīṃ cākṣuṣasya saṃvedanasya viṣayātirekaḥ, kintvanumānameva tatra
> sarpiṣaḥ /
>
> yastu nipuṇadarśo sūkṣmamapi rūpamīkṣituṃ kṣamaḥ, sa cakṣuṣaivājyajātimapi
> pratyeti, na gandhagrahaṇamapekṣate /
>
> nanvevaṃ bahvavahīnam, kiṃnibandhano hi tadānīmāhavanīyādisādhyakarmasu
> keṣāñcidadhikāro nānyeṣām; kiṃnibandhanā ca *brāhmaṇaśabda*sya
> pravṛttivyavasthā iti /
>
> atrocyate /
>
> anādau saṃsāre janyajanakabhāvena vyavasthitāstāvat kāścideva
> strīpuruṣasantatayaḥ santi, tāsāmanyonyavyatikareṇa jātāḥ strīpuṃsavyaktayo
> brāhmaṇaśabdavācyāḥ /
>
> anidamprathamatayā ca santateḥ sarveṣāṃ tatsantatipatitatvāt siddhā
> brāhmaṇaśabdavācyatā /
>
> tena santativiśeṣaprabhavatvameva brāhmaṇaśabdapravṛttāvupādhiḥ /
>
> tatprabhavānāmeva karmasvadhikāra iti na kiñcidavahīnam /
>
> ke punaste santativiśeṣāḥ /
>
> na te parigaṇayya nirdeṣṭuṃ śakyante, kintu lokata eva prasiddhāḥ
> pratyetavyāḥ /
>
> tathā ca tajjanyatve 'vagate brāhmaṇaśabdaṃ prayuñjate lokāḥ /
>
> (…)
> Best wishes,
>
> Christophe
>
> Le 16 juin 2016 à 20:41, Donald R Davis <drdj at austin.utexas.edu> a écrit :
>
> My thanks to Sam Wright who pointed me to the following:
>
> Wilhelm Halbfass, “Homo Hierarchicus: The Conceptualization of the Varna
> System in Indian Thought,” in *Tradition and Reflecton*. SUNY Press,
> 1991. [contains a long discussion of the jati as caste and as universal in
> the works of several authors, including Jayanta and, especially, Kumarila
> on pp. 363ff.]
>
> Samuel Wright, "History in the Abstract: ‘Brahman-ness’ and the Discipline
> of Nyaya in Seventeenth-Century Varanasi.” *Journal of Indian Philosophy*,
> forthcoming.
>
> The issue is discussed on page 204 in Sukla, S. N. (Ed.). (1971). *Nyāyamañjarī
> of Jayanta Bhaṭṭa (Part I)*. The Kashi Sanskrit Series 106, Nyaya
> Section No. 15. Varanasi: Chowkhamba Sanskrit Series Office.
>
> Best, Don
>
> From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
> Johannes Bronkhorst <johannes.bronkhorst at unil.ch>
> Date: Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 11:40 AM
> To: rajam <rajam at earthlink.net>
> Cc: Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com>, "indology at list.indology.info" <
> indology at list.indology.info>
> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] J?ti as Caste in Ny?ya?
>
> 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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>
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> –––––––––––––––––––
> Christophe Vielle <http://www.uclouvain.be/christophe.vielle>
> Louvain-la-Neuve
>
>
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