Center for Global Asia

Presented at: 12th Wuyue Forum of Buddhism, Hangzhou Buddhist Academy, Hangzhou, China.

This essay explores the role played by the Sanskritic linguistic and hermeneutic discipline of nirvacana ‘etymologizing’ in selected episodes of early Buddhist literature.
In doing so, it addresses the question of how ‘etymologizing’ works as a pliable and powerful tool for codifying and transmitting ‘meaning’, from one Buddhistic language to another. In mapping the occurrences of the term nirutti in Pāli literature, the first part of the essay attempts to reconstruct how ‘etymologizing’ fits with some dominant early Buddhistic notions about language. The second part focuses on instances of ‘etymologizing’ as a hermeneutic practice and considers instances in Pāli, Gāndhāri, and Sanskrit sources.

International Conference ‘Cosmology and the Self in Ancient India and Ancient Greece’ in Exeter on 9-12 July 2014.

A perceptive comparison between the early Greek and the early Indian notion of the ‘Self’ needs to be premised upon a clear understanding of how this notion appears in the two individual traditions. This paper aims to illustrate the formation of the notion of the ‘Self’ in ancient India’s pre-Upanishadic literature.
Several recent contributions have investigated the notion of the ‘Self’ in classic, medieval and pre-modern India. They have shown the complexity and sophistication of these speculations, and tried to bring them to bear on the discussion about comparable issues in Western philosophy. Although these contributions explore various episodes in the Hindu and Buddhist religious and philosophical thought, they do not take into account the pre-Upanishadic Vedic evidence.
This paper intends to demonstrate that mature reflections about the notions of the ‘Self’ are already found in Vedic literature. By investigating philologically the occurrences of the Sanskrit key terms ātman (‘body, trunk, soul, reflexive pronoun’) and puruṣa, (‘male, human being, soul’) in Vedic, it maps the ways in which these reflections originated and developed. In particular, this paper argues that the mystic-symbolical interpretations of the ritual of the construction of the brick-layered fire altar (agnicayana), as articulated in the tenth book of the Śatapathabrāhmaṇa, plays a central role in the formation of the concept of an immortal Self. In these speculations, the fire altar is identified with the primeval god Prajāpati, as well as with the sacrificer. By ritually constructing the fire altar, the sacrificer is said to restore the body (ātman) of the sacrifice, whereby he also obtains an immortal soul (ātman).
A comprehensive investigation of the reflections about the ‘Self’ in Vedic literature does not only put the Upanishadic and Buddhistic debates about the nature of the self into sharper relief, but it also reveals a complex, advanced, and self-conscious system of reflections about man and its place in the universe.

Presented at IV Congreso Interncional des Estudios Clasicos en Mexico. From 5h 18min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5JTWCIJMl8

This paper examines the pioneering Western and Indian philosophies of language as presented in Plato's Cratylus and Yaska's Nirukta. These two texts--one from 4th century BCE Greece, the other from 5/4th century BCE India--articulate systematic positions on the nature of language that set the groundwork for later discussions within their respective traditions.

Both texts explore the nature of language by offering a theory about the relationship between words and non-linguistic reality. In doing so both employ the practice of 'semantic etymologizing' that, though considered false from the perspective of modern linguistics, nonetheless touches upon key questions regarding the ways a community of speakers conceptualizes language and its functions. Investigation of these texts' philosophical positions regarding language will begin with the questions of what 'etymology' is; what patterns or rules undergird etymological practice in Cratylus and Nirukta; and what, ultimately, these texts conceive of as the purpose of etymologizing.

This paper argues that a comparative exploration of the linguistic ideas expressed in the Cratylus and Nirukta is a powerful tool for putting new questions and re-formulating old ones, as well as stimulating a greater care in discriminating exact meanings.

This paper examines the classificatory system developed in Yāska’s Nirukta, which correlates a deity or group of deities with a Rigvedic hymn or portion thereof. It explores its rationale, principles of classification, and the ways in which they relate to other Vedic notions.

In A. Grafton and G. Most, eds. Canonical Texts and Scholarly Practices: A Global Comparative Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press [In press]

THIS IS A DRAFT VERSION

This essay explores selected examples of puns and etymologizing in the Pali canon. It argues that they do not solely serve a satirical intent, but are sophisticated rhetorical devices, skilfully employed by the Buddha to induce a reflective awareness in the listeners and persuade them into accepting his view. Their rhetorical function and efficacy is investigated, while foregrounding a new interpretation of the Aggaññasutta.

Keywords Aggaññasutta · Etymologizing · Etymology · Nirukta ·
Pali canon · Puns · Rhetoric · Skilful means

This essay considers Yāska’s Nirukta (ca. third century BCE), the foundational text of the Indian discipline of semantic derivation (nirvacana), in comparison with modern historical etymology. It argues that a comparative exploration is useful for gaining a deeper understanding of both etymological projects. Specifically, it investigates comparatively the following questions: What words need etymologizing? What are the fundamental principles of etymologizing? How many etymological analyses can be provided for one word? Who are the people who carry out such analyses? What is the role of subjectivity that goes into making a historical etymology and a semantic derivation? And, finally, what are the aims that the two inquiries try to achieve?

The relation between Yāska's Nirukta and the Vedic literature has been discussed by several scholars, but other than focusing on etymologies, it has been insufficiently studied. This article casts further light on the Vedic background of the Nirukta by considering three kinds of evidence. First, it explores the occurrences of nir-√vac in the Atharvaveda and in the Brāhmaṇas. Next it studies a method for classifying mantras that is first advanced in the Brāhmaṇas and then elaborated in the Nirukta. Third, it argues that Yāska's model of nirvacana analysis was informed by a particular kind of Vedic etymology involving the opposition between evident (pratyakṣa 'present before the eyes') and cryptic (parokṣa 'out of sight') names. Keywords Veda – Nirukta – Atharvaveda – Brāhmaṇas – pratyakṣa/parokṣa – Sanskrit linguistic disciplines

In In R. Yelle, C. Lehrich, and C. Handman eds. Language and Religion. Berlin de Gruyter (Language Intersections series) [in press].


The chapter explores two kinds of evidence: the Indian emic or native interpretations of transparency and nineteenth-century Western authors’ pronouncements on Sanskrit’s ‘wonderful structure’. For India, I will concentrate on Patañjali’s Great Commentary. For the West, I will focus on Friedrich Schlegel’s hugely influential On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians (1808). My aim is threefold: first, to provide a brief yet accurate description of such speculations on the transparency of Sanskrit in their respective contexts. Second, to show how Indian speculations contributed to informing Schlegel’s ideas. And third, to foreground transparency’s role as the crucial category in conceptualizations of Sanskrit as a perfect and sacred language.

Etymologies are often encountered in Vedic prose, in Brahmanas and
early Upanisads. Though they have received a fair amount of scholarly attention, Vedic etymologies still present a challenge to interpreters. To respond to it, I critically review previous interpretations, and focus on three case studies, Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 1.1.2, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 1.3, and Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.8. In my interpretation, I emphasize the need for a contextual reading, foreground Vedic etymologies’ complexity and sophistication, and call attention to the variety of purposes they serve to achieve as well as to Vedic etymologists’ agency.  Supplementing conventional interpretations concentrating mostly on their religious-magical aspects, I describe Vedic etymologies as discursive devices used by Vedic authors to further their thoughts and agendas.

The essay demonstrates the longevity and pervasiveness of Indic and Indic-derived etymological analyses (nirvacana) across literary traditions, in Sanskrit, Pāli, and Chi-nese. To exemplify different indigenous approaches to etymology, the essay explores emic analyses of the word araṇya 'wilderness'. It traces the analyses found in Chāndo-gya Upaniṣad (8.5) and in the works of the etymologists (Nirukta) and grammarians (vyākaraṇa; uṇādisūtra). It also considers Paramārtha's nirvacana-inspired analysis of Chinese alianruo 阿練若 (araṇya), and identifies a similar analysis in Aggavaṃsa's Saddanīti. The essay shows etymological analyses' sophistication and variety of purposes .

Verbal forms of upa √ās are one of the characteristic features of Upaniṡadic diction. While several studies have investigated their semantics, very little attention has been given to their syntax. A quick comparison of different translations shows that there is no agreement among Upaniṡadic interpreters regarding the syntax of upa √ās. By considering all its occurrences in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka and Chāndogya Upaniṣads, this paper offers the first systematic study of its syntax. It is hoped that the analytic model proposed here will allow us to better parse, understand, and translate the relevant Upaniṡadic passages. The paper comprises two parts: Part I presents the results of my analysis succinctly; Part II offers a detailed analysis. Two appendixes follow: Appendix 1 examines the formula 'ya eta-evaṃ vidvān (…) upa √ās'; Appendix 2 represents all the occurrences of upa √ās in a table.