Les Doctrines Indiennes de la Philosophie du Langage

Objectives

The Indian analysis of word and sentence has a long history of about two and a half millennia. The present project aims to collect, analyse and present the theories on the "Nature of word, sentence and the knowledge generated by it" from the Indian point of view based on Indian Logic, Grammar, Hermeneutics, Theology etc. The coherency of the project can be summed up by the fact that while the Paninian grammar deals with the first level organization of Language through the definition of the formation of words, the objective here is to focus on the second level organization of language through analysis of the mental processes involved in the generation of knowledge through words and sentences.

The theories analysed are :

1. The nature of the word and sentence, sentence-sense, instrument of the cognition of the sentence-sense, auxiliary causes of the cognition of sentence- sense ; 2. The words (nominal, particles, prefixes etc.) their significances, their significative powers, referents ; 3. The verbal roots, suffixes and their meanings ; 4. The conjugational endings and their meanings.

Materials and Methods

The data is obtained from various texts pertaining to the schools of Logic, Grammar, Hermeneutics, Theology, Literary criticism, as well as Buddhism and written in a very cryptic style in the time span of the last two and half millennia. Each of the texts representing diverse opinions and views are carefully studied and analysed. The first step in this instance is to collect data from all the available sources through close examination of the texts. The second step is to analyse the data in a manner so as to make it presentable. The third step is to present the data in very lucid Sanskrit with the addition of indices, translations etc.

Primary sources of reference are : the large collection of printed volumes on the various Sastras as also other manuscripts available at the IFP library. Other references have been sourced through DELNET.

Partners

MOU is to be signed Rashtriya Sanskrita Vidyapeetha, Tirupaty.

Funding

French Institute of Pondicherry

Team

IFP

• Dr. N.S.R. Tatacharya, Head of the project
• Dr. Veera Narayana N.K. Pandurangi, Researcher
• P.B. Sheshadri, Research assistant

Others

• Prof. N.Veelinathan, Professor emeritus, Department of Sanskrit, Madras University.
• Dr. S. Revathy, Reader, Department of Sanskrit, Madras University
• Prof. K.V.Ramakrishnamacharyulu, Department of Vyakarana, Rashtriya Sanskrita Vidyapeetha (RSVP) Tirupati.

Main Outputs

Publications and/or CD ROMS

• Sabdabodhamimamsa. An inquiry into Indian theories of verbal cognition. Part III : Subantapadarthavicaratmakah. Nominal stems and their significance.

N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya with the collaboration of F. Grimal and S. Lakshminarasimham, Collection Indologie no 100.3 ; Samskrtavarsasmrtigranthamala no 8, IFP / Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 2007, xi, 51, 456 p.
Language : Sanskrit. 250 Rs. (Distributed by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi)

This volume, third in the series under the project An Inquiry into Indian Theories of Verbal Cognition, is devoted to an analytical and critical study of nominal stems viz. underived, ending in the kṛt, taddhita and feminine suffixes, compound words, and indeclinables, according to the schools of Nyaya, Vyakarana, Purvamimamsa, Advaita, Visistadvaita and Dvaita.

Among the topics dealt with in this volume are : the nature of the relationship between a word and its sense, and its subdivisions (abhidha, laksana, gaunivrtti) ; the significance of a word, whether denoting a universal (jati), or an individual (vyakti), or the specific configuration of an object (akṛti), or the blend of all three ; the different forms of primary signification through which a word conveys the conventional sense (rudhi), etymological sense (yoga), the sense which is both conventional and etymological (yoga-rudhi), and also the conventional and the etymological senses that are different from each other (yaugika-rudhi).

Keywords : Indian philosophy, sastra-s, verbal cognition

• Sābdabodhamīmāmsā. An inquiry into Indian theories of verbal cognition. Part II Subarthavicārātmakaḥ. Case terminations and their significance

N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya, IFP/Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 2006, xi, 69, 940 p. (CI nº 100.2)
Language : Sanskrit. (Distributed by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi / Diffusé par le Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi)

Under the project entitled An Inquiry into Indian Theories of Verbal Cognition consisting of four volumes, the present one is the second in the series. It deals with the significance of the nominal case terminations. In this volume, Professor Ramanuja Tatacharya offers a profound and well-organized account of the views of the Naiyāyikas, Vaiyākaraṇas and the Mīmāṃsa in regard to this subject. Clearness of thought, soundness of reasoning, and freedom from bias underlie the presentation of the view points of the authors of these schools of thought.

Keywords : Indian philosophy, śāstra-s, verbal cognition

• Sābdabodhamīmāmsā. An inquiry into Indian theories of verbal cognition. Part I. Vākyavākyārthavicārātmakaḥ. The sentence and its significance

N.S. Ramanuja Tatacharya. IFP/Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, 2005, lviii, 546 p. (CI nº 100.1)
Language : Sanskrit, English. (Distributed by the Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi / Diffusé par le Rashtriya Sanskrit Sansthan, New Delhi)

In this first volume of An Inquiry into Indian Theories of Verbal Cognition, the author, assembling the view of different śāstra-s (Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā, Vyākaraṇa, Vedānta…) examines the following theories and subjects : the theory according to which word is a means of valid cognition, the definition of word as a means of valid cognition, the nature of the sentence, its sense, and what makes it intelligible, the theories of anvitābhidhāna and abhihitānvaya, the notions of syntactic unity and plurality, syntactic expectancy, logical consistency, phonetic contiguity and the general purport of the sentence, the sphoṭa theory : all views and notions the knowledge of which constitutes the first step in the analysis of verbal cognition.

Keywords : Indian philosophy, śāstra-s, verbal cognition