[INDOLOGY] death of Raniero Gnoli

Wed May 7 10:42:48 UTC 2025

Dear friends and colleagues,
Although I never had the chance to meet Professor Raniero Gnoli personally, his work as a Buddhist scholar has accompanied me almost every day for more than thirty years : the first chapter of Dharmakīrti’s Pramāṇavārttika together with the daunting “Svavṛtti” thereon (1960), and the Saṅghabhedavastu (2 vols., 1977-1978, made with the duly acknowledged assistance of T. Venkatacharya, which was not so frequent at that time). Whatever can be said about editorial details, these two pioneering works remain irreplaceable monuments of scholarship, produced with great rapidity and a remarkable philological acumen. With its many acknowledgments (footnotes) to E. Frauwallner and G. Tucci, the PVSV also testifies to Prof. Gnoli’s close cooperation with the best specialists of the time. Knowing what my admirable Italian friends and colleagues, above all Raffaele Torella and Francesco Sferra, owe to this giant personality both as scholars and human beings, my thoughts are with them and all those for whom Raniero Gnoli was a friend and a model. Requiescat in pace.
Vincent Eltschinger

Vincent Eltschinger, korrespondierendes Mitglied der OeAW
Directeur d'études
École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des sciences religieuses
Patios Saint-Jacques, 4-14 rue Ferrus - 75014 Paris
vincent.eltschinger at ephe.sorbonne.fr
0033 1 56 61 17 34 / 0033 7 85 86 84 05
________________________________
Von: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> im Auftrag von Elisa Freschi via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 7. Mai 2025 00:49:46
An: Oliver Fallon
Cc: Indology List
Betreff: [EXT] Re: [INDOLOGY] death of Raniero Gnoli

External Email: please use links and attachments from trusted sources only
Dear Raffaele, dear friends and colleagues,

I will need more time to put together my thoughts and my words to express my indebtedness to Prof. Raniero Gnoli, but I also want to immediately participate in the pain of the loss of an incredible scholar, maker and human being, and in the gratitude for having being alive long enough to have known him and learnt from his words. His pāṇḍitya was limitless, his ability to read anything starting from anywhere was astonishing, as well as the lucidity of his fearless judgements.
I know that his children and the former pupils who were closer to him will miss him even more and my thoughts are with them.

Best wishes,

elisa (freschi)

On Tue, 6 May 2025 at 09:26, Oliver Fallon via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
All respect to his memory.
In Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960) 3rd Day Sequence: Marcello meets Steiner, his distinguished intellectual friend, inside a church. Steiner shows off his book of Sanskrit gammar:
https://getyarn.io/yarn-clip/d0b7e9c4-e061-4c27-a277-4fa481f7bc82
Although the Wikipedia page says that Steiner was modeled on the novelist Cesare Pavese, I always wondered if Gnoli also was an inspiration? He would have been 30 at the time of the film's release.

On Tue, 6 May 2025 at 11:25, Pankaja Ganapathy via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:

Shivaloka praaptirastu

On Tue, 6 May, 2025, 2:41 pm Lyne Bansat-Boudon via INDOLOGY, <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>> wrote:
This is very sad news that will affect many of us, especially those for whom non-dualist Kashmir Shaivism is a field of research.
Is there any need to recall Professor Gnoli’s pioneering role in this field and the inaugural study he brilliantly conducted on Indian aesthetic theory, one of the major dimensions of this system of thought?

In a certain way, Professor Gnoli “created”, or rather discovered and brought to light the aesthetic Indian thought as an autonomous, yet very much integrated new discipline, rich in countless metaphysical resonances that not only help us better understand how non-dualist Kashmir Shaivism is a “system” in the strongest sense of the word, but also contribute to bring about the putting into perspective of the many Western theories, themselves relatively partial.

His work as a philologist and philosopher has inspired many researchers of subsequent generations, beginning with the one who was his most faithful and brilliant disciple, Professor Raffaele Torella.
We will greatly miss Professor Gnoli, but the number and quality of his works will remain an indispensable reference for us.

Lyne Bansat-Boudon

Directeur d'études pour les Religions de l'Inde

Ecole pratique des hautes études, section des sciences religieuses

Membre senior honoraire de l'Institut universitaire de France

________________________________
De : INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info<mailto:indology-bounces at list.indology.info>> de la part de Raffaele Torella via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
Envoyé : lundi 5 mai 2025 23:18
À : Indology List <indology at list.indology.info<mailto:indology at list.indology.info>>
Objet : [INDOLOGY] death of Raniero Gnoli

Dear Members,
some hours ago Raniero Gnoli, one of the most outstanding scholars of our times, and an extraordinary gentleman, has left us. He has passed away peacefully at the age of 95. He was a unique man…

Raffaele Torella

Prof. Raffaele Torella
Emeritus Professor of Sanskrit
Sapienza University of Rome
wwwuniroma1.academia.edu/raffaeletorella<http://wwwuniroma1.academia.edu/raffaeletorella>

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--
Dr. Elisa Freschi

Associate Prof. of South Asian Philosophy
Department of Philosophy
University of Toronto
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170 St George Street
ON M5R 2M8 Toronto (Canada)
+1 647 451 2448

http://elisafreschi.com
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Bluesky: @elisafreschi.bsky.social
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