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Quotations, References, etc. A Glance on the Writing Habits of a Late Mīmāṃsaka

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Abstract

Rāmānujācārya’s Tantrarahasya, a philosophical treatise mainly dedicated to the hermeneutics and epistemology of the Pūrva Mīmāṃsā School, might be considered hardly more than a jigsaw of reused passages, since (at least) one third of it has a direct source, and (at least) a further third has its roots in interlanguage usage. It is thus a perfect case study for investigating the compositional habits of philosophical authors in pre-modern śāstra literature. The article analyses the formal aspects of textual reuse by Rāmānujācārya and draws some general conclusions regarding the author’s intellectual affiliation to Prābhākara Mīmāṃsā on the basis of the way he reuses his school’s texts as compared to the reuse of other schools’ texts. A final section discusses the possibility of generalising these results to the approach to textual reuse of the whole Pūrva Mīmāṃsā.

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Abbreviations

A:

Brahmamitra Avasthi’s edition of the VM.

AN:

Aṅganirṇaya, chapter of Pārthasārathi’s Nyāyaratnamālā. In: Śāstrin, Gaṅgādhara (ed.) 1900 and Rāmaswami Śāstri Śiromaṇi (ed.) (1937).

Aṣṭ:

Pāṇini’s Aṣṭādhyāyī.

MBP:

Bhaṭṭa Śaṅkara’s Mīmāṃsābālaprakāśa. In: Śāstrin, Mukuṇḍa 1902.

MNP:

Āpadeva’s Mīmāṃsānyāyaprakāśa. In: Edgerton 1929.

MNS:

Mahādeva Vedāntin’s Mīmāṃsānyāyasaṅgraha. In: Benson 2010.

MS:

Mīmāṃsāsūtra by Jaimini. In: (for ŚBh ad MS 1.1) Frauwallner 1968; (for the rest) Abhyankar and Jośī (1971–1980) and Subbāśāstrī 1929–1934.

NR:

Rāmānujācārya’s Nāyakaratna. In: Rāmaswami Śāstri Śiromaṇi (ed.) (1937).

NRM:

Pārthasārathi Miśra’s Nyāyaratnamālā. In Śāstrin, Gaṅgādhara (ed.) 1900. See also NR.

PdhS:

Praśāstapada’s Padārthadharmasaṅgraha. In Prasād Dvivedin 1984.

PrP:

Śālikanātha Miśra’s Prakaraṇapañcikā. In: Śāstrin, Mukuṇḍa (ed.) (1904) and Subrahmanya Sastri (ed.) (1961).

S:

Sarma’s edition of VM. In: Sarma 1990.

Śā:

Subrahmaṇya Śāstrī’s edition of PrP. In: Subrahmanya Sastri (ed.) (1961).

ŚBh:

Śabara’s Śābarabhāṣya. In: Abhyankar and Jośī (1971–1980) and Subbāśāstrī 1929–1934.

TR:

Rāmānujācārya’s Tantrarahasya. In: Rāmaswami Śāstri Śiromaṇi (ed.) (1956).

TV:

Kumārila’s Tantravārttika. In: (for TV ad MS 2.1.1–4) Kataoka 2004; (for the rest) Abhyankar and Jośī (1971–1980) and Subbāśāstrī 1929–1934.

VM I:

Vākyārthamātṛkā, part I, chapter of Śālikanātha’s Prakaraṇapañcikā. In: Śāstrin, Mukuṇḍa (ed.) (1904), Subrahmanya Sastri (ed.) (1961), A, Wicher 1987 and Sarma 1990.

VM II:

Vākyārthamātṛkā, part II, chapter of Śālikanātha’s Prakaraṇapañcikā. In: Śāstrin, Mukuṇḍa (ed.) (1904), Subrahmanya Sastri (ed.) (1961), A, Wicher 1987 and Sarma 1990.

VN:

Vidhinirṇaya, chapter of Pārthasārathi’s Nyāyaratnamālā. In: Śāstrin, Gaṅgādhara (ed.) 1900 and Rāmaswami Śāstri Śiromaṇi (ed.) (1937).

VV:

Maṇḍana Miśra’s Vidhiviveka. In: Śāstrī Tailaṅga, Rāma (ed.) (1907) and Mahāprabhulāla Gosvāmī (ed.) (1978).

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Acknowledgments

I am grateful to Katharine Apostle for having corrected my English. Parts of the conclusions of this article have been discussed in Freschi (2012b) where a graphical depiction of the various fictive speakers in TR IV section 3 is also present.

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  1. Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria

    Elisa Freschi

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Freschi, E. Quotations, References, etc. A Glance on the Writing Habits of a Late Mīmāṃsaka. J Indian Philos 43, 219–255 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-014-9238-3

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