FEATURED PUBLICATIONS
Kāṭhakopaniṣada কাঠকোপনিষদ
This book is a detail exposition of Saṅkarācārya’s commentary on Kāthopaniṣada by Brahmacari Medhacaitanya. This book alludes to the story of Naciketas asking Yama about the destiny of man after death. Yama responds to the query by elaborating on the nature of self that survives the physical death of a man.
Advaitasiddhiḥ (Volume-1) অদ্বৈতসিদ্ধি: (১ম খন্ড)
In this book, Yogendranāth Tarkasāṃkhyavedantatīrtha, the author, offers a detailed analysis of the four definitions of ignorance that one finds in the text Advaitasiddhi by Madhusudana Saraswati. The book starts with an analysis of some theories that could be viewed as impediments to the justification of Advaita-Vedānta view, viz. Kramonnativāda, poureṣeyatvavāda of the Vedas, is the fallibility of the founding fathers of philosophical schools. The book ends with an exposition of the text called Nyayamitra written by Vyāsatīrtha, a work whose fundamental ideas have been refuted by the author of Advaitasiddhi.
Gadādhara’s Theory of Objectivity Viṣayatāvāda (Part-One)
In this volume, Sibajiban Bhattacharyya presents an analysis of the fundamental concepts in Navya-Nyāya. The themes that have been discussed in this book are 1. Navya-Nyāya theory of Relation, Being in Aristotle and Navya-Nyāya, Navya-Nyāya theory of universals, Navya-Nyāya theory of abstraction, Navya-Nyāya theory of definition, Navya-Nyāya theory of causation, Comparative analysis of Frege and Gadādhara.
Swapnalabdha Bharatbarsher Itihas স্বপ্নলব্ধ ভারতবর্ষের ইতিহাস
Swapnalabdha Bharatvarsher Itihas is a collection of articles written by Bhudev Mukhopadhyay. All the articles present different aspects of the history of Europe with special reference to the history of England. This volume contains a historical novel and also some proposals regarding the education system in Bengal.
Darśana Manīṣā Categories
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.
Gadādhara’s Theory of Objectivity Viṣayatāvāda (Part-Two)
In this book, Sibajiban Bhattacharyya offers a detailed analysis of the text called Viṣayatāvāda, written by Gadādhara. After explaining the traditional Navya-Nyāya theory of objectivity, the author presents the later Navya-Nyāya theory of objecthood where it has been argued that objecthood cannot be cognition itself. Gadādhara’s theory of relation has been analyzed in terms of objecthood of qualified cognition. A detailed analysis of the ideas of qualificandness, qualificandumness, predicatehood could be found in this book.
प्रामाण्यवाद: (Prāmāṇyavādaḥ)
In this book, Harirama Tarkavagisa critically assesses the Mīmāṃśa theory of self-luminosity of knowledge. According to Prabhākara, the knower, the object of knowledge and the knowledge itself are apprehended in one go. The Bhaṭṭa Mīmāṃsakas hold that knowledge is inferred through a property called knownness. Murāri Miśra, another Mīmāṃsaka philosopher, holds that knowledge is known in a subsequent knowledge called introspection. Harirāma, following the footsteps of Gaṅgeśa, argues that since sometimes doubt regarding the validity of knowledge arises in the third moment after the origin of knowledge, the validity of the knowledge is apprehended by something other than the totality of the causal conditions of that knowledge. Harirama further argues that there is something wrong with the thesis that knowledge is self-luminious.
अवच्छेदकत्वनिरुक्ति: (Avacchedakattvaniruktiḥ)
In this book, Jagadīśa offers commentary on the nature of vyāpti as mentioned by Raghunatha Śiromaṇī in his Didhīti. Jagadīśa talks about two kinds of vyāpakatva in great detail. In this context, Jagadīśa alludes to the concept of avacchedakata and explains these allaying all the possible questions that one could raise in this context.
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.
BROWSE BY LANGUAGE
Nāgānanda
Nāgānanda is an English translation along with explanatory notes on the drama Nāgānanda written by Harshadev. Asha Toraskar and N.A.Deshpande, editors and translators, offer a brief analysis of the contribution of Harshadeva in their introduction. A commentary written in Sanskrit, on Nāgānanda, by M.R. Kale has also been added to this book.
Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy
Phenomenology and Indian Philosophy is a collection of essays edited by D.P.Chattopadhyaya, Lester Embree and J.N.Mohanty. There are twenty-six essays in this volume and all the essays deal with several aspects of phenomenological philosophy and study these insights from the perspective of classical Indian philosophical standpoint. The last essay in this volume, authored by D.P.Chattopadhyaya, contains a philosophical evaluation of the salient points that emerge from the essays in the collection.
Gopinath Kaviraj’s Thoughts – Towards a Systematic Study
This book by Kalidas Bhattacharyya is a collection of Mahamahopadhyay Gopinath Kaviraj Memorial lectures delivered by Kalidas Bhattacharyya in the year 1980. Bhattacharya here explores the works of Gopinath Kaviraj written in the later years of his life. Kaviraj was an extraordinary scholar who was well-versed in both the philosophical and religious literature of India as well as the west. Above all, he was a sādhana. He was principally a Śaiva, particularly of the monistic kind, However, as Bhattacharyya claims, this Śaiva doctrine received certain innovative twists in the hands of Kaviraj and became a kind of Śaiva Dualism. Kaviraj was equally interested in Tantra, Yoga, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Gauḍiya Vaiṣnavism and also Śankara’s Advaita Vedānta. In this book, Kalidas Bhattacharyya explores the notion of Transcendence and the justification of this notion that we find in the works of Gopinath Kaviraj. He discusses the different regions of Transcendence and finally goes on to discuss the idea of Pūrṇatā or Ultimate Perfection as developed by Kaviraj.
A Study in the Dialectical of Sphoṭa
Gaurinatha Sastri, in this book, deals with the idea of sphoṭa as one finds in the Grammarian Tradition in classical Indian philosophy. The book contains four chapters: 1. Nyāya and Mīmāṃsā objections to the idea of sphoṭa, 2. The views of Kumārila, Śabara and Jayanta on sphoṭa. 3. Classification of Sphoṭa and 4. Authority of Āgama on sphoṭa.
Alternative Standpoint in Philosophy
This is one of the most seminal works of Kalidas Bhattacharyya. Bhattacharyya speaks of the constant need that philosophers have felt to justify their work and their discipline. Bhattacharyya thinks that the modern defense of Philosophy is only possible through what he calls logic of alternation. Bhattacharyya’s position is that we can provide Philosophy with such a defense only by attempting a novel understanding of the knowledge-object unity. Bhattacharyya claims that this attempt is ingrained in the very being of all the important Indian systems of thought. This book is both a historical and comparative study of the basis of all Philosophy. The book has four chapters. Chapter One is on “Knowledge of Object” where the close unity of knowledge and its object is emphasized. In this connection, Bhattacharyya discusses subjective and objective attitudes and also the contradiction between subjectivity and object. Chapter Two is on “Types of Philosophy”. In this chapter, Bhattacharyya tries to show that the Unity of Knowledge and Object is Unrejectable and their unity is inevitable. Those who reject the knowledge-object unity do so because they think that such a unity would definitely lead to some kind of contradiction. But Bhattacharyya would like to show that this contradiction too is not rejectable. Actually, the Unity that he speaks of is a Disjunctive Unity. This disjunctive unity actually indicates that we have to stand alternatively on the subjective and the objective attitudes and reach a kind of dialectical unity. He then goes on to speak of the subject-object and the absolute as alternatives. In Chapter Three, “Cognition Feeling and Conation” Bhattacharyya takes up these three notions which seem to be opposed to each other. The first three chapters are analyses of these notions while the last section sees Cognition, Feeling and Conation as Alternatives. In Chapter Four Bhattacharyya considers “Further Alternatives” such as Jñāna Bhakti and Karma. He speaks of the three kinds of infinity in this chapter. The book ends with the idea of the Ultimate Alternation.