/ 185 ered manner with the focus on the ideas and not qualitative value judgments on the theoreticians. The transition from Saussure through Derrida to Lacan is smooth and flawless given the complexity of Bhartåhari's arguments and their relationality with these three theoreticians. From Saussure to Lacan, the continuity of formulations and the range of implications are neatly placed in the context of Bhartåhari's work by Dwivedi. The methodology of quoting from Väkyapadiya to elucidate the concepts is enriching for scholars who are seeking to place the rich Sanskrit tradition of grammar and philosophy (vyäkaraëa and darçana). The chapter on Bhartåharian and Lacanian thought is unique and immensely rich. The relationship of reality, mind and language in poststructuralist thought and in the psychoanalytical propositions of Lacan are introduced firstly through Väkyapadiya that makes them contextual and therefore naturally understandable. The relationship between manifest world, impressions, memory and language that Bhartrhari expounds upon in Väkyapadiya appears complex and universally valid when seen in the context of modern linguistic and psychoanalytic inquiry. The comparative study of Bhartåharian and Lacanian propositions is truly rewarding for the reader. The paradigms of comparativist approach in linguistics as offered by Dwivedi's book demand attention and engagement. The works of classical Indian philosophers, grammarians and literary critics are pertinent to scholarly inquiry and must be placed as such. The Orientalist baggage that Indian literature, philosophy and criticism have been carrying requires to be shed in order to identify refreshing approaches like this book offers. The discussions on central ideas in the complex language philosophy of Bhartåhari and the reassessment of these ideas in contemporary contexts of local as well as global lived experience is an approach that has been missing in scholarly work. In conclusion, it is important to recognise the possibilities embedded within comparative studies and the paradigms they offer to scholars and general readers alike. NAMRATA CHATURVEDI SRM University Sikkim, India CATEGORIES, CREATION AND COGNITION IN VAIÇEÑIKA PHILOSOPHY. By ShashiPrabha Kumar. Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore, 2019. 187 p. ShashiPrabha Kumar's reference book, Categories, Creation and Cognition in Vaiçeñika Philosophy, aims to help students and researchers study Vaiçeñika, one of Indian philosophy's early and foundational traditions. There are few book-length treatments of Vaiçeñika itself, as opposed to its later incorporation into Nyäya: for instance B.K. Matilal's contribution to A History Of Indian Literature is titled NyäyaVaiçeñika. Wilhelm Halbfass' On Being and What There Is , an important treatment of Vaiçeñika, integrates a philosophical approach with the philological, while recently, Anant Lal Thakur's Origin and Development of the Vaiçeñika System focuses on the tradition's textual-historical development. Kumar herself has already Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol. 43, No. 1 [185-188] © 2020 Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute, India Categories, Creation and Cognition in Vaiçeñika Philosophy 186 / JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND AESTHETICS contributed to the literature with an introductory textbook, Classical Vaiçeñika in Indian Philosophy. Against this background, Kumar's newest work aims to help readers navigate the source material in the Sanskrit texts, explicitly disclaiming originality and comprehensivity (vii). This approach is evidenced in the book's wealth of footnotes and an entire chapter (fourteen) devoted to bibliography. While Kumar characterizes the book as having fourteen chapters, it would be more accurate to say it is a set of fourteen overlapping papers, each focusing on a different aspect of Vaiçeñika. As a guide to source material, the book will be useful to readers already somewhat familiar with Vaiçeñika, and as a reference guide, the book's lists of categories (padärthas) and other related concepts will also be handy for the same. However, the book is less satisfactory for readers wishing for a general introduction to the study of Vaiçeñika, given its organization, coupled with its heavy use of untranslated Sanskrit and assumption that readers are already familiar with Indian philosophy. Philosophically speaking, the book is useful in sketching out the commitments of Vaiçeñikas and their interlocutors, more on which below, but is sparse when it comes to developing the nuances of the sustained arguments and objections throughout the lengthy history of Vaiçeñika influence on Indian thought. The book begins with two chapters introducing Vaiçeñika and its textualhistorical connections: "Veda and Vaiçeñika" and "Yoga and Vaiçeñika." General readers will immediately find themselves perplexed by the various names of schools and technical terms: who are the "Nyäya-Vaiçeñika" and what is "validity"? (There is in fact, no sustained discussion of the relationship between Nyäya and Vaiçeñika, only scattered remarks throughout.) Specialists may find certain unsubstantiated claims unsatisfactory: such as that Vaiçeñika has a more "logical view" than Mémäàsakas when it comes to the origin of the Vedas (4), or that Vaiçeñika's commonsense realism makes it convincing (64). Such positive evaluations of Vaiçeñika against all possible objections (which are typically underdeveloped if stated at all) continue, without support, throughout the volume. Still, these chapters lay the connections between Vaiçeñika and the earliest textual sources for brahminical Sanskrit thought, with copious references to these texts. Some, but not all, are translated in the main text. Readers will easily be able to trace these discussions themselves in the sources with the help of the notes. The subsequent chapters deal with a range of topics within Vaiçeñika: categories (Chapter Three), creation (Chapter Four), atomism (Chapter Five), consciousness and cognition (Chapter Seven), çabda or speech/ language (Chapter Eight), hermeneutics (Chapter Nine), niùçreyasa or ultimate bliss (Chapter Ten), and ethics (Chapter Twelve). Some of the chapters, such as Chapter Three, include helpful tables grouping Sanskrit terms for important concepts or for lists of such terms. As many of these resources do not include English translations, this limits the book's reach to readers with some Sanskrit. Most of the chapters begin with some summary of what Vaiçeñika is, and a list of the categories. Throughout, there are / 187 repeated, redundant discussions of topics such as how atoms are combined, how creation occurs, how categories are grouped, and so on. For instance, Chapter Nine, "Hermeneutical Principles in Vaiçeñika," is mostly a restatement of the categories and their analysis through similarity and difference already treated in previous chapters, along with a few remarks about semantic theories-and not so much a treatment of textual interpretation. Thus the book is probably best treated as a reference to find source material related to discrete topics, rather than read as a sustained take on Vaiçeñika. One cautionary note about its use as a reference guide: Kumar's treatment of Vaiçeñika is more nuanced than of its opponents. For instance, she claims (44) that "the Mémäàsakas" accept resemblance (sädåçya) as an additional category, and that early Vaiçeñikas might argue in response that sädåçya should be subsumed under sämänya ("universal"). However, it is only Präbhäkara Mémäàsakas who take sädåçya as a category; Bhäööa Mémäàsakas do not, in fact explicitly understanding it in relationship to sämänya (see Kumärila's upamänapariccheda in the Çlokavärttika). Likewise, references to "the Buddhists" (e.g. 120) obscure the differences among different Buddhist groups. Drawing out some of these distinctions would also help her exposition of Vaiçeñika's relation to other Indian approaches. In addition to exploring Vaiçeñika topically, Kumar takes a few other approaches: comparative (Chapter Six), historical (Chapter Eleven), and bibliographic (Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen). Chapter Six is titled "Vaiçeñika approaches to Science." Unfortunately, the discussion of science, which Kumar defines as an approach to reality that involves "observation and experimentation," in contrast to philosophy's "introspection and reflection" is disappointing (78). She first flatly distinguishes science and philosophy: "science aims at exploring the reality and formulating theories thereof, while philosophy tries to expound and examine those theories" (78). The rest of the chapter then primarily consists in listing claims made by Vaiçeñikas along with some apparent analogs in experimental science. For example, the Vaiçeñika claim that atoms in a pot are subject individually to "chemical action" (päka) is implied to be similar to the "modern method of heating through a microwave oven"; this thereby "proves" that Vaiçeñikas have a more "scientific" outlook than Naiyäyikas, who argue that päka applies to the pot as a whole (82). Setting aside the tendentious translation of päka as "chemical action" rather than "heating" (while heating always involves chemical action, the converse is not true) such an anachronistic approach is not only in tension with Kumar's stated goals of evaluating Vaiçeñika on its the basis of its own presuppositions (74), but it threatens to obscure the genuinely important observational merits of these thinkers, who, as Kumar rightly emphasizes in an interesting discussion of kinds of motion (84-88), were astute observers of the natural world. Further, we lose a chance to consider whether these careful differentiators carved the lines between observation and reflection and between science and philosophy differently from the way Kumar does or modern thinkers might. Categories, Creation and Cognition in Vaiçeñika Philosophy 188 / JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE AND AESTHETICS Chapter Eleven tentatively answers the question of whether and how Vaiçeñika is connected to Çaivism: "Are Vaiçeñikas Paçupatas?" Her view is that we do not have sufficient evidence to answer the question definitively, but that they were likely part of the Mäheçvara sect, and maybe closely connected to Paçupatas. This chapter collects together evidence from original sources as well as existing views on the matter, with a nice introduction to the main contours of Çaivism. Given earlier discussion of creation and divinity (Chapter Four) and niùçreyasa (Chapter Ten), some motivation of the importance of this question for understanding Vaiçeñika would have been both appropriate and useful at the outset. Finally, in Chapters Thirteen and Fourteen, Kumar introduces us to a set of five modern Sanskrit commentaries on Vaiçeñika and fourteen international scholars of Vaiçeñika, respectively. While much of the material in the last chapter is available in the form of bibliographic databases, it is a useful collection of references that graduate students might use for their studies. Chapter Thirteen, in contrast, gives attention to modern Sanskrit work (1958 to 1979) that may not be as well-known. This brief chapter gives highlights of these commentaries, which readers with facility in Sanskrit may wish to explore further. On the whole, Kumar does what she sets out to do: collect together a set of chapters which treat important aspects of Vaiçeñika thought and give readers assistance in navigating their original sources. It can be a useful reference work for established scholars with existing background in Vaiçeñika, with the limitations noted above kept in mind. Works Cited Halbfass, Wilhelm. On Being and What There Is: Classical Vaiçeñika and the History of Indian Ontology. New York: State University of New York Press, 1992. Kumar, ShashiPrabha. Classical Vaiçeñika in Indian Philosophy: On Knowing and What is to Be Known. London: Routledge, 2013. Matilal, B.K. Nyäya-Vaiçeñika. Vol 6.2 of A History of Indian Literature, edited by Jan Gonda.Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1977. Thakur, Anant Lal. Origin and Development of the Vaiçeñika System. Delhi: Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy, and Culture, Centre for Study of Civilizations, 2003. MALCOLM KEATING Yale-NUS College, Singapore THE SUBLIME READER. By Robert R. Clewis (Ed.) London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2019. xii+439 pp. It is important to point out at the very outset that The Sublime Reader does not have an academic peer, historically speaking. It is the first book of its kind, and I emphasize that it might remain so for at least half a decade. The only book which dare approach it tangentially is Peter De Bolla's The Sublime: A Reader in Eighteenth-Century Aesthetic Theory (Cambridge University Press, 1996). Having charted a circumference ranging from Longinus and Bharata Muni to as contemporary a figure as Emily Brady, Clewis can be legitimately excused for having Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics Vol. 43, No. 1 [188-193] © 2020 Vishvanatha Kaviraja Institute, India