[INDOLOGY] "Psychological complexity" of Sanskrit language/literature

[Mauricio Najarro]

Dear all,

It might also be worthwhile to examine the treatment of emotions in other
discursive traditions. I’ve found Daniel Gross’s work, and in particular The
Secret History of Emotions
<https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3750571.html>
(University of Chicago, 2006), useful in this regard. Rather than
approaching emotions as a perennialist might, Gross traces the history of
emotions in the West considered as psychosocial phenomena rather than as
biologically given and universally distributed. It is also important, I
believe, not to fixate on lexicon and terms but instead examine the
conditions under which some terms rather than others are employed and by
whom. In my own primary field (medical anthropology), this argument is made
by Charles Briggs here
<http://somatosphere.net/2018/beyond-banned-words.html/>:

One is a core component of language ideologies of modernity since the
seventeenth century: the reduction of complex issues of poetics, politics,
rhetoric, and meaning to a focus on individual words.


In Gross' work, he examines anger, as only certain elites such as a king or
nobleman are permitted to feel and/or express anger. This is revelant when
examining, for instance, Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra and the dangers/management
of "wrath". In 8.3, there is an extended discussion of "wrath" (*kopa*)
wherein Olivelle's translation of *kopa* as "wrathful revolt," captures a
sense of both anger and rebellion contained in the word, which makes the
emotion highly charged politically and points to why such a feeling is
inappropriate for a sovereign.

<https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo3750571.html>Hope
this is helpful,

Mauricio

Sent from my iPad

On Aug 24, 2020, at 10:28 AM, Alex Watson via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:


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