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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara The Religious, Political, and Medical Roots of Personhood in Pre-Classical India A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies by Matthew Ian Robertson Committee in charge: Professor David G. White, Co-Chair Professor Barbara A. Holdrege, Co-Chair Professor Vesna A. Wallace March 2017 The dissertation of Matthew Ian Robertson is approved. ____________________________________________ Vesna A. Wallace ____________________________________________ Barbara A. Holdrege, Committee Co-Chair ____________________________________________ David G. White, Committee Co-Chair March 2017 The Religious, Political, and Medical Roots of Personhood in Pre-Classical India Copyright © 2017 by Matthew Ian Robertson iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS If a person is truly a world unto him or herself, and if that world has behind it the full force and scope of Time’s transformational powers, then there should be no end to my thanks. This I take to be the appropriate attitude in all endeavors; nevertheless I would like to acknowledge several key individuals who have shaped my thinking on the matters addressed in the following pages. Boundless thanks to the following: To my parents, Edward “Chip” D. Robertson Jr. and Reneé Ann Robertson, whose love, support, and friendship have been a constant; whose kindness and generosity have time and again proven to be inestimable; and whose willingness to let their son to discover his own path have been a wellspring of courage. To my partner and soon-to-be wife, Alexandra Olympia Hendley, my steadfast beacon of kindness, my paragon of heart, the Sun of my love. Thank you for listening to all of my ideas, all of my rambling odes to the world, and all of my scheming to think beyond mere flesh. To my siblings, Meredith Koschak and Kip Robertson, whose care for their brother is absolute, and whose devotion to making a lasting, positive impact on the world is a source of deep admiration. To my dissertation committee co-chairs, professors David G. White and Barbara A. Holdrege, committee member professor Vesna A. Wallace, and former advisor and continuing mentor Thomas A. Carlson. My engagement with the world, in thought and action, has been profoundly shaped by your living example. I hope this work proves the beginning of a long career that will honor your teaching and friendship. To Dr. Ravi Mooss, Vaidya at the Aatma Clinic of Anandapuram, Kerala. Your dream of boundless human health is a source of inspiration. May the bitterness of your medicines bear out the sweetness of a well-lived life. To my former mentors at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, especially David Starr, who first introduced me to the world of the Mahābhārata, sparking thereby an endless source of fascination. May the search for better questions outlive us all. To Andrew, Nate, and Shane, who have helped to give musical expression to many of the ideas contained in these pages, and who have proved to be an endless source of laughter, camaraderie, and support. Old Man is truly among the best things of my life. To Michael, my giant brother from another, whose insight and capacity for love is unparalleled. To think with you is to come home. May you forever be blessed. To Laura, Paul, and Milo, who are true family, and who are missed all too often. To Chandler, Jeff, and Tom, whose passion for thinking and earnestness in the search for truth inspired unforgettable conversations. It was and remains an honor. And last, but certainly not least, to Miro, my cat, who teaches patience in the face of the mysteries and travails of human-to-animal communication, and who inspires laughter and appreciation every day. iv CURRICULUM VITAE OF MATTHEW IAN ROBERTSON March 2017 EDUCATION: 2017 Ph.D. in Religious Studies (South Asian Religions Doctoral Emphasis), University of California, Santa Barbara (expected in Spring 2017) Field Exams: “Self, Person, and Body in Indic Yoga Traditions” (David G. White); “Hermeneutics and Embodiment” (Barbara A. Holdrege); “Contemporary Philosophy” (Thomas Carlson) 2009 Master of Arts in Eastern Classical Literature, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM 2005 Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Philosophy minor; Truman State University, Kirksville, MO TEACHING AND RESEARCH INTERESTS: History of South Asian Religions, Āyurveda, Yoga, Tantra, History of Medicine, Philosophy of South Asian Religion, Continental Philosophy, History of Christian Thought TEACHING EXPERIENCE: 2017 Instructor of Record, “Introduction to World Civilizations.” Dept. of History, Murray State University 2016 Instructor of Record, “Hinduism and Buddhism.” Dept. of History, Murray State University 2015 Instructor of Record, “Religious Approaches to Death.” Dept. of Religious Studies, UCSB 2014, Teaching Assistant, “Gods and Goddesses of India.” Dept. of Religious Studies, 2012 UCSB 2013, Teaching Assistant, “Religious Approaches to Death” Dept. of Religious Studies, 2011 UCSB PUBLICATIONS: In Press 2016 Robertson, Matthew I. “In a Time Gone Mad: Indic Notions of Madness in the Mahābhārata and Beyond,” Journal of Hindu Studies 9: 111-144. v 2015 Robertson, Matthew I. “The Unconscious Mind.” In, Ghosts, Spirits, and Psychics: The Paranormal from Alchemy to Zombies. Edited by Matt Cardin. ABC-Clio Inc. Under Review 2016 Robertson, Matthew I. “The Identity of Person and World in Caraka Saṃhitā 4.5” CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS: 2016 “Better Left Unsaid: Death and Apophasis in Relation to the Issue of Transcendence.” Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, Atlanta, GA, March 4-6. 2015 “Puruṣa as Loka: An Ecological Paradigm of Embodiment in Āyurveda and Early Yoga.” American Academy of Religion (AAR) Western Regional Conference, UC Santa Clara, March 20-22. 2014 “Discombobulating Disclosures: Truth, Power, and the Unveiling of the Unknowable in the Bhagavad Gītā.” Disclosure, UC Santa Barbara May 22. 2013 “Forgetting to Be Myself: Georg Groddeck and the Person as the It.” Personhood, Place, and Possession: Embodiment and Emplacement in Special Contexts, UC Santa Barbara May 28-29. INVITED TALKS: 2016 “The Brief History of Microcosmology in Indic Thought.” Historical Research Forum, Dept. of History, Murray State University, October 20. “The Many Storeys and Last Days of Thomas Merton.” Historical Research Forum, Dept. of History, Murray State University, April 26. 2015 “Dharma, Kāma, and Śakti: Tantric Concepts in Contemporary Indian Fiction.” Dept. of English, Murray State University, November 11. “Yoga, Hindutva, and the Politics of Hindu Identity in 21st century America,” Dept. of Religious Studies, UCSB, August 21. LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY: Modern Languages English, French (excellent reading proficiency), German (reading with dictionary), Japanese (reading with dictionary). Ancient Languages Sanskrit (excellent reading), Greek (reading with dictionary), Latin (reading with dictionary). vi AWARDS AND HONORS: 2014 Raimundo Panikkar Award in Comparative Religions, Dept. of Religious Studies, UCSB 2009 Honors received for M.A. Thesis, “Renunciation, Sacrifice, and the Buddhi: A Comparative Analysis of the Teachings of Sanatsujāta and Kṛṣṇa.” Defended October 28 at St. John’s College, Santa Fe, NM. GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS: 2016 Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowship, University of California, Santa Barbara 2010- Rowney Graduate Fellowship, Dept. of Religious Studies, UCSB 2013 vii ABSTRACT The Religious, Political, and Medical Roots of Personhood in Pre-Classical India by Matthew Ian Robertson The puruṣa—the “person” addressed throughout Indic texts—is not a microcosmic replication of the macrocosmos; he is the phenomenal world itself. This dissertation provides a textual and historical examination of the puruṣa concept in the Vedic Saṃhitās, Brāhmaṇas, Upaniṣads, Pali Nikāyas, pre-classical Saṃhitās of early Āyurveda, and the Mahābhārata. I argue that, contrary to the dominant scholarly position, the cosmos is only ‘in’ the person insofar as the person expands to be the same measure as the cosmos. In the political and religious poetry of the Vedas, the person is modeled after Indra, who creates the world by swelling to its limits in the guise of the Sun. In the Brāhmaṇas, the sacrificer toils to become like Indra, to discover the puruṣa in the Sun, and thereby attain the immortal expansiveness of svarga-loka. In the Upaniṣads, the person is the recursively reproducing, blissfully autophagous eater of the world, who transcends space and time by “yoking” up to ever greater expanses through yoga. In the early teachings of the Buddhist Pāli canon, the person is non-different from the “empty” elementality of the world, and the bhikkhu meditates on this fact to extinguish his belief in self, person, or world. These earlier views of the person are synthesized and given paradigmatic expression in the pre-classical Saṃhitās viii of Āyurveda and the Mahābhārata, where the logics of Yoga and early Sāṃkhya dictate that person and world are “identical” and “the same measure.” In the words of the foundational Caraka Saṃhitā, the pre-classical person who is fully realized, “bears the yoke” of the world as the sovereign master of its materiality, harmoniously conjoined to the phenomenal totality that is named puruṣa. ix Table of Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Personhood ..................................................................................................................................