About Book
The book, which partly derives from the papers offered at the first International Seminar on Utpaladeva (IIAS, Shimla 2013), is the first ever attempt at presenting a comprehensive portrait of one of the most important philosophers of premodern India, so far mainly taken into account as a mere predecessor of the great Abhinavagupta. Recent studies by R. Torella and others have shown the central importance of Utpaladeva in the elaboration of the Pratyabhijna philosophy, and reduced the role of Abhinavagupta to that of his brilliant commentator.
The contributors to the present volume have shown the multifarious aspects of Utpaladeva, not only an outstanding metaphysician and epistemologist, engaged in a strenuous critical dialogue above all with the Buddhist logicians, but also one of the most extraordinary mystical poets of India. For the first time his contribution to poetics and aesthetics has been duly highlighted.
The book contains two appendices with the critical edition and translation by R. Torella of fragments from Utpaladeva’s long commentary (Vivriti) on his Ishvarapratyabhijna-karika and Vritti, one of the most important works of Indian philosophy as a whole, so far deemed to be totally lost.
This book should generate great interest among scholars of Sanskrit and philosophy for its uniqueness and should serve the curiosity of each and every scholarly reader of Kashmir Shaivism.
About Author
Raffaele Torella is professor of Sanskrit at University of Rome “Sapienza”, where he has also taught for long Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Indology. His preferred fields of research are Kashmir Shaivism, linguistic speculation, Buddhist epistemology and manuscriptology. Among his main publications, there is the first critical edition and annotated English translation of Utpaladeva’s Ishvarapratyabhijna-karika and Vritti, the fundamental theoretical work of Pratyabhijna philosophy and of Hindu Tantrism as a whole (MLBD, Delhi 2002); the Italian translation of the Shivasutra with Kshemaraja’s commentary (Milan 1999); Eros and Emotions in India and Tibet (Einaudi, Turin 2007; in Italian). He has been the scientific responsible and co-author of the section “Science in India” in the multivolume work History of Science (Rome 2002; in Italian). Along with Bettina Bäumer, he has recently organized the first International Workshop on Utpaladeva at Indian Institute for Advanced study in Shimla (2010).
Bettina Baumer, Austrian by birth, is a widely-known Indologist, author and scholar, with a versatility of research concerns: ranging from Kashmir Shaivism to Oriyan religious traditions, from shilpashastras to Indian temple architecture. Settled at Varanasi, India, since 1967, she is currently Research Director of the Alice Boner Foundation (Varanasi) and Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at Vienna University. And as President, since 1988, of the Abhishiktananda Society, she has been engaged in interreligious dialogue, with focussed interest in comparative mysticism.
Besides her German translations of Yoga-sutra, Upanishads and Abhinavagupta, Dr. Baumer has also edited and authored a number of books -- which notably include Volumes 1-3 of Kalatattvakosha, Rupa Pratirupa, Vastusutra Upanishad, and Shilparatnakosha.