FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
India of the age of the Brāhmaṇas
This book, written by Jogiraj Basu, offers a detailed history of ancient Indian society and culture as found in the Brāhmaṇa texts. The book contains four major parts, each part containing many more chapters. The first part (Book I) contains a discussion on the social and economic aspects of ancient society. The second part (Book II) contains a discussion on the political and military aspects of the ancient society. In the third part (Book III) one finds a description of the religio- philosophical speculations of the ancient society. The last part (Book IV) contains a discussion on the flora and the fauna, the ideas of calendar and astronomy as found in Brahmanic literature.
Object Content and Relation
This book by Kalidas Bhattacharyya considers the relation between Consciousness and it’s Object. Once we ask the question “Is there anything intermediate between consciousness and object?”, we come up with the answer “Content”. Now, what is this Content and is there such an intermediate thing between Consciousness and Object? This is a question that needs to be answered. This book explores the relationship between Objects and Consciousness via the idea of Content. The book is divided into two chapters. This first chapter is on “Object and Content”. The second is on “Relation”. The first chapter deals with:
- Analysis of Thought and Memory
- Analysis of Perception: Idealism and Realism
- Analysis of Perception – Illusion as to Judgment
- Some Theories of Illusion Examined
- Content and Object as Alternatives
- Criterion of Reality
- Real and Non-Real Appearances
- The Notion of Relation
- Classification of Relations
- The So-called Puzzles of Relation
- Relation – Is it Subjective, Objective or Dialectical?
- External and Internal Relation
- Some Theories of Relation
Cultural Otherness and Beyond
Cultural Otherness and Beyond is a collection of essays on philosophy of culture. This volume is edited by Chhanda Gupta and D.P.Chattopadhyaya. There are eleven essays in this volume, all dealing with the very idea of culture and nature of understanding a culture. This brings in the idea of exchange among different cultures where the concept of other plays an important role.
Āryaśāstra (Brahmavaivarttpuraṇam) Volume- Eleven আর্যশাস্ত্র (ব্রহ্মবৈবর্ত্তপুরাণম)
Brahmavaivarta Purāṇam (vol 1) is one of the well-known purāṇas. The story goes that all the Purāṇam, including Brahmavaivarta Purāṇam is written by Veda Vyāsa. Brahmavaivarta Purāṇam in its entirety contains eighteen thousand verses. It is considered one of the Mahapurāṇas. It is said to be written in the time span (kalpa) of rathantara. Different purāṇas are thought to be identical with different parts of the body of Sri Hari and Brahmavaivarta Purāṇa is imagined to be the left knee of Sri Hari. The resulting idea is that the Purāṇam are manifestations of different parts of the body of Sri Hari signifying the importance of the Purāṇam.
This Purāṇam contains discourses on how Brahman, the ultimate reality, evolves itself into the manifold things and events in the world. It contains many dialogues between different godheads all describing the story of creation in many different ways. The different perspectives of the jnani, bhakta etc have been described in detail.
Darśana Manīṣā Categories
शब्दशक्तिप्रकाशिका (Śabdśaktiprakāśikā)
Śabdaśaktiprakāśikā contains six chapters: 1. Nāmaprakaraṇa, 2. Samāsaprakaraṇa, 3. Supvibhaktiprakaraṇa, 4. Kārakaprakaraṇa, 5. Akhyātaprakaraṇa, 6. Taddhitaprakaraṇa. The present volume contains two commentaries on Śabdaśaktiprakāśikā viz. . Kriśnakānti commentary by Krisnakānta Vidyāvāgīśa and Pravbodhinī commentary by Rāmabhadra Siddhāntavāgīśa.
The Padārthatattva-Nirūpaṇam (পদার্থতত্বনিরুপনম)
The present book, written by Raghunātha Śiramaṇi and translated and explained in Bengali by Madhusudan Bhattacharya, is an attempt to present his views on the metaphysical categories generally accepted in the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika tradition. Raghunātha, of course, refutes some of the categories accepted by earlier Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika philosophy. He even does not hesitate to accept some of the views of the Mīmāṁsā philosophy, thereby going against his own tradition.
নবদ্বীপ মহিমা (Nabadwip Mahima)
This book is perhaps the first attempt to portray the detailed history of Navadvipa. The author starts the discourse with the history of the name ‘Navadvipa’ along with a description of the relation of Navadvipa to the rest of Bengal during the ancient period. The second part of the book contains a detailed description of the scholars of Navadvipa who worked on Navya-Nyāya, Smṛti, and Tantra. In the third chapter, one finds an elaborate presentation of Sri Chaitanya’s biography along with a discussion on Vaishnava religion. Since Navadvipa was ruled by the king of Krishnagar for a long time, there is a discussion on the rulers of Krishnagar, their contribution to the Navadvipa scholarship as patrons. The author also adds a discussion on the famous musicians, eminent persons trained in English education and business persons of Navadvipa.
शब्दशक्तिप्रकाशिका (Śabdaśaktiprakāśikā (Vol-1))
Śabdaśaktiprakāśikā is an important text written by Jagadīśa Tarkālaṃkāra containing an analysis of śabda pramāna following the Navya-Nyāya tradition. This work is a defence of many of the theses of Gaṅgeśa, the author of Tattvacintāmaṇi. In many places, the views of Bhatṛhari and Srīpatidatta, the author of Kalapa-pariśiṣta, have been critically assessed and defended. The author offers a detailed analysis of how the knowledge of the meaning of a sentence is generated through the presence of the elements like ākāṁṣkā, yogyatā and āsatti. Since the meaning of a word is defined in terms of śakti, a question arises with regard to the locus of śakti. Bhāṭṭa Mīmāṁsakas hold that śakti stays in the universal. Jagadīśa refutes this thesis of the Mīmāṁsakas. The author also refutes the thesis that the locus of śakti is the individual object, a view that is propagated by Raghunātha Śiromaṇi. Jagadīśa defends the view that combines both the insights that the locus of śakti is the individual object and the locus of śakti is the universal. In this book, Jagadīśa presents an analysis of the nature of lakṣanā. In this work we also find an analysis of how ākaṁkṣā, yogyatā and āsatti could be treated as the cause of understanding the meaning of a sentence. Jagadīśa, however, refutes the view that the knowledge of tātparya is the cause of understanding the meaning of a sentence, instead proposes the view that prakaraṇajñāna is the cause of understanding the meaning of a sentence. Thus in the present work the author, after defending śabdapramāṇa as an independent pramāṇa, offers his analysis of the ways of generating linguistic understanding.
ध्ब्मसजन्यभावयो: कार्यकारणभावरहस्यम् (Dhvaṃsa- Janyabhāvayoḥ Kārya-Kāraṇabhāvarahasyam)
In this essay, Harirama Tarkavagisa undertakes an analysis of the nature of the causal relationship between a positive effect and destruction. The author examines the nature of the inference viz. Dhvaṃsa is due to vināśa. If one takes into consideration this inference, there must be a hetu here and the hetu could be said to have an upadhi viz. Bhāvatva. Harirama, in this context, presents different ways of formulating the causal relation. The author ends this essay by concluding that the positive effect (janyabhāva) could be said to be the cause of destruction (dhvaṃsa) through the relation of pratiyogitva.
নবদ্বীপের ইতিহাস ও সংস্কৃতি (Navadviper Itihas O Samskriti)
This work is a historical study of Navadvipa. The present work consists of eleven chapters. The first chapter serves as an introduction to the history of Navadvipa. The second chapter devotes itself to the geographical location of Navadvipa. The third chapter takes note of the Buddhist influence. In the fourth chapter, there is a survey of historical studies done on Navadvipa. The cultural movements in Navadvipa constitute the fifth chapter. The history of old temples and monasteries in Navadvipa is the focus of the sixth chapter. The rule of Krishnachandra is the point of discussion in the seventh chapter. The eighth chapter describes the education scenario in Navadvipa. The debate concerning the birthplace of Chaitanya Deva forms the major part of the discussion in the ninth chapter. In the tenth chapter, one finds a description of crematoriums and graveyards in Navadvipa. The last chapter refers to some historical studies on Navadvipa already done. This book contains some ancient maps and pictures of the old temples of Navadvipa.
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The Teaching of Sanskrit
The Teaching of Sanskrit by Raghunath Safaya is a book that describes the different principles and methods of teaching Sanskrit in schools and colleges. There are nineteen chapters and an appendix in the book. The chapters offer a detailed presentation of the importance of learning Sanskrit, the ways of formulating the syllabus of Sanskrit, the different methods of teaching Sanskrit, the ways of teaching Sanskrit prose and Sanskrit poetry, the importance of teaching pronunciation, the methods of teaching grammar, the method of evaluation etc.
History of Sanskrit Poetics
History of Sanskrit Poetics is a detailed historical survey of Sanskrit literary theory. Sushil Kumar Dey, the author of the book, divides the work into two volumes. The first volume contains ten chapters starting with Bharata and ending with a discussion of some minor writers of Alankara. The second volume contains ten chapters starting with Bhamaha and ending with a discussion of the writers of Kavi-śikṣā.
