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Harvard Oriental Series 96

Utpaladeva on the Power of Action

A First Edition, Annotated Translation and Study of Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛti, Chapter 2.1

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$50.00 • £43.95 • €45.95

ISBN 9780674270817

Publication Date: 09/28/2021

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  • Foreword
  • I. On the discovery of the fragments of Utpaladeva’s Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛti
    • 1. The Pratyabhijñā corpus
    • 2. The justification for the treatise’s different textual levels and the Vivṛti’s goal
    • 3. The search for the Vivṛti and the discovery of the Delhi codex unicus
    • 4. The discovery of fragments in marginal annotations—and the lengthiest fragment known to date
    • 5. The marginalization of Utpaladeva’s magnum opus
    • 6. The importance of the fragments for the assessment of Utpaladeva’s and
    • Abhinavagupta’s philosophical contributions
  • II. The manuscript sources used for this edition
    • 1. Three distinct sets of annotations and a jigsaw puzzle
    • 2. Why we cannot dispense with annotations in ĪPV and Vṛtti manuscripts
    • 3. The obstacles to the determination of the annotations’ genealogy
    • 4. The relationship between the Vṛtti annotated manuscripts
    • 5. The relationship between the ĪPVV manuscripts
    • 6. The relationship between the ĪPV manuscripts
    • 7. What can be said for now of the annotations’ genealogy and date(s)
    • 8. Description of the ĪPVV annotated manuscripts used for this edition
    • 9. Description of the ĪPV annotated manuscripts used for this edition
    • 10. Description of the Vṛtti annotated manuscripts used for this edition
  • III. The philosophical context: Utpaladeva’s demonstration of the self and his absolute idealism
    • 1. Utpaladeva’s goal in the Pratyabhijñā treatise
    • 2. Utpaladeva’s demonstration of the existence of the self (ātman)
    • 3. Utpaladeva's demonstration of his nondualism (īśvarādvayavāda)
  • IV. The Buddhist objection against action and its refutation (ĪPK 2.1.1)
    • 1. The Buddhist criticism of action
    • 2. Utpaladeva’s claim that this criticism is already refuted
    • 3. Action as the core of all conscious events: on prakāśa and vimarśa in Śaiva nondualism
    • 4. The Vaiśeṣika’s contention that action has no unity of its own and the element of contradiction within all perceived actions
  • V. The crux of Chapter 2.1: the problem of sequence (ĪPK 2.1.2)
    • 1. How can action belong to the ultimate consciousness if it involves sequence?
    • 2. The gist of Utpaladeva’s response: sequence is not the essence of action
    • 3. The “devouring of time” (kālagrāsa)
    • 4. The identity of the Lord’s action with that of individuals, and the ethical consequences of this principle
  • VI. The nature of time (ĪPK 2.1.3)
    • 1. The first definition mentioned by Utpaladeva: time is nothing but actions
    • 2. Utpaladeva’s goal in ĪPK 2.1.3: showing that time is only the sequence involved in ordinary actions
    • 3. Two understandings of time as a cause in the Vaiśeṣika
    • 4. Utpaladeva’s criticism of the first understanding: why time cannot be certain actions used to measure others
    • 5. Utpaladeva’s refutation of the second understanding: why time cannot be this or that auxiliary cause
    • 6. Why time is not a distinct substance: Utpaladeva’s main divergence with the Vaiśeṣika
  • VII. Sequence as the result of the ultimate consciousness’s will (ĪPK 2.1.4)
    • 1. The point of the verse: showing that sequence rests on the Lord’s will
    • 2. Sequence, the incompatibility of phenomena, and consciousness’s freedom
    • 3. Abhinavagupta’s emphasis on Utpaladeva’s debt to Bhartṛhari as regards time
    • 4. Utpaladeva’s distinction between exclusive difference and variety
    • 5. Utpaladeva’s assertion that this distinction is accepted by the Buddhists and Bhartṛhari’s followers
    • 6. The objective entities in which sequence is found are mere manifestations of consciousness
  • VIII. The definition of spatial and temporal sequence (ĪPK 2.1.5)
    • 1. Space and time result from the variety of material shapes and actions
    • 2. The paradox of action
    • 3. Spatial sequence and the issue of sound (śabda)
    • 4. A Vaiśeṣika objection: spatial sequence cannot result from a difference between material shapes
    • 5. Temporal sequence only concerns conscious beings but is also projected onto insentient entities
    • 6. An object regarded as one has no spatial sequence
    • 7. Action, the six modifications in the process of becoming (bhāvavikāra), and temporal sequence
    • 8. Action, time and recognition
    • 9. The limited subject and the awareness of present, past and future
    • 10. Time and space only make sense in an idealistic system
    • 11. The Buddhist reduction of time and its criticism: Utpaladeva’s use of the satkāryavāda controversy
    • 12. The issue of the yogic perception of past and future events
  • IX. The limited realm of temporal and spatial sequence (ĪPK 2.1.6–7)
    • 1. Why there is temporal sequence for limited subjects
    • 2. Why there is no temporal sequence for the ultimate consciousness: the lost passage on the meaning of sakṛt
    • 3. Why even the ultimate consciousness’s objects have no temporal sequence: objectivity at the levels of Sadāśiva and Īśvara
    • 4. Spatial sequence too only exists for limited subjects (ĪPK 2.1.7)
  • X. Space, time and the ultimate consciousness’s creative power (ĪPK 2.1.8)
    • 1. Equating sequential manifestation with the nonsequential action of consciousness
    • 2. The allusion to aesthetic wonder in the lost beginning of the Vivṛti on ĪPK 2.1.8
    • 3. The gist of the verse according to Abhinavagupta: will (icchā) as the core of action
    • 4. The power of action as the (great) universal of Being
    • 5. The power of great creation (mahāsṛṣṭiśakti) and the cosmic functions of Rudra, Brahmā and Viṣṇu
    • 6. The cosmic creation does not conceal the true nature of the ultimate consciousness
  • XI. Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛti, Chapter 2.1: Translation
    • ĪPK 2.1.1
    • ĪPK 2.1.2
    • ĪPK 2.1.3
    • ĪPK 2.1.4
    • ĪPK 2.1.5
    • ĪPK 2.1.6
    • ĪPK 2.1.7
    • ĪPK 2.1.8
  • XII. Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛti, Chapter 2.1: Edition
    • Preliminary remarks
    • Abbreviations
    • Text
    • ĪPK 2.1.1
    • ĪPK 2.1.2
    • ĪPK 2.1.3
    • ĪPK 2.l.4
    • ĪPK 2.1.5
    • ĪPK 2.1.6
    • ĪPK 2.1.7
    • ĪPK 2.1.8
  • Bibliography
    • 1. Primary sources: manuscripts
    • 2. Primary sources: editions
    • 3. Translations, studies, catalogues, dictionaries

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