[INDOLOGY] death of Raniero Gnoli

Wed May 7 12:27:53 UTC 2025

When I was about 19-20 years old, I often heard the name of Prof Raniero
Gnoli (1930-2025) from my teacher Pandit Dinanath Yaccha (1921-2004). At
that time, I only knew that this was some Italian scholar, only to discover
later that there were innumerable Sanskrit texts that this prodigious man
had translated meticulously, including Abhinavagupta's *Luce delle sacre
scritture *(*Tantrāloka*) (1973), apart from many others.

Gnoli’s scholastic contribution is universally evident. But just to let you
know, an instance I had heard from Pandit Yaccha is worth recalling.
Whenever Gnoli visited Srinagar, he would meet with Yaccha. Yaccha told me
that once, while looking at a text together, they got stuck at a particular
place where Gnoli asked Yaccha if they should consult a (modern or a
traditional) dictionary, only to discover that the latter had none because
they were expensive. After a month or so, as Yaccha narrated, an angry
postman informed him that many heavy bundles in the post office were
waiting for him to be picked up. Yaccha discovered that while returning to
Italy, Gnoli had sent him Monier Monier-Williams Dictionary,
*Śabdakalpadruma*, *Vācaspatyam*  (both available in several volumes),
etc., from Delhi. This was an unspoken gesture of friendship, and Yaccha
fondly recalled this very often.

Thanks to Francesco Sferra, one of his students, I was able to visit him at
his place near Roma in 2014. A man who built marble statues and did
wall-sized embroideries was silently revising his Italian translation of
the *Tantrāloka* probably for the third time. He showed me a few things he
had bought in Srinagar long ago, when my parents were probably kids. A man
who authored several books in English, including the impressive work *The
Aesthetic Experience According to Abhinavagupta* (1956), told me that he
was too old to speak English anymore. Spending a few hours with him was a
feeling of being transported into a calm, secluded and serene medieval
European ashrama.

Un grande omaggio al Gran Maestro.

Mrinal
-----
Mrinal Kaul (he/ him/ his)
Associate Professor (Indian Philosophy)
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB)
Powai, Mumbai 400076, INDIA
Tel: +91 22-2576-5349  Extn: 5349 (office)
Tel: +91 22-25769349 (Residence)
email: mrinal.kaul at iitb.ac.in
www.hss.iitb.ac.in/en/faculty-profile/mrinal-kaul
https://iitbombay.academia.edu/MrinalKaul
Meeting: meet.google.com/gtj-tdms-tpg

On Wed, 7 May 2025 at 16:14, Eltschinger, Vincent via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> 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> 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> wrote:
>>
>>> Shivaloka praaptirastu
>>>
>>> On Tue, 6 May, 2025, 2:41 pm Lyne Bansat-Boudon via INDOLOGY, <
>>> 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> de la part de
>>>> Raffaele Torella via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>>> *Envoyé :* lundi 5 mai 2025 23:18
>>>> *À :* Indology List <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
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>>
>>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Dr. Elisa Freschi
>
> Associate Prof. of South Asian Philosophy
> Department of Philosophy
> University of Toronto
> Jackman Humanities Building,
> 170 St George Street
> ON M5R 2M8 Toronto (Canada)
> +1 647 451 2448
>
> http://elisafreschi.com
> http://oeaw.academia.edu/elisafreschi
> Bluesky: @elisafreschi.bsky.social
>
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