Language and Reality Brill’S Indological Library
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Language and Reality Brill’s Indological Library Edited by Johannes Bronkhorst In co-operation with Richard Gombrich, Oskar von Hinüber, Katsumi Mimaki, Arvind Sharma VOLUME 36 Language and Reality On an Episode in Indian Thought By Johannes Bronkhorst Translated from the French by Michael S. Allen and Rajam Raghunathan Revised and with a new appendix LEIDEN • BOSTON 2011 This translation has been made possible thanks to a generous grant from the Faculty of Arts, University of Lausanne. This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bronkhorst, Johannes, 1946– [Langage et réalité. English] Language and reality : on an episode in Indian thought / by Johannes Bronkhorst ; translated from the French by Michael S. Allen and Rajam Raghunathan. — Rev. and with a new appendix. p. cm. — (Brill’s Indological library; v. 36) Rev. and updated English ed. of: Langage et réalité : sur un épisode de la pensée indienne. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-90-04-20435-5 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy, Indic—History. 2. Language and languages—Philosophy—History. 3. Reference (Philosophy)—History. 4. Reality—History. I. Title. II. Series. B132.S4B7613 2011 181’.4—dc22 2011006922 ISSN 0925–2916 ISBN 978 90 04 20435 5 © 1999, Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, Belgium (Johannes Bronkhorst, Langage et réalité: sur un épisode de la pensée indienne). French edition. Revised and updated edition in English: Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. CONTENTS Preface to the French Edition .......................................................... vii Abbreviations ..................................................................................... ix I. Introduction: Words and Things ............................................... 1 1. Aim of the Lectures .............................................................. 1 2. Early Brahmanical Literature .............................................. 2 3. Pāṇini’s Grammar ................................................................ 8 4. A Passage from the Chāndogya Upaniṣad ....................... 14 5. The Structures of Languages ............................................... 15 6. The Buddhist Contribution ................................................. 19 7. Vaiśeṣika and Language ....................................................... 23 8. Verbal Knowledge ................................................................ 29 II. The Correspondence Principle .................................................. 37 1. The Contradictions of Nāgārjuna ...................................... 37 2. The Reactions of Other Thinkers ....................................... 43 3. Sarvāstivāda ........................................................................... 46 4. Sāṃkhya ................................................................................. 50 5. The Āgamaśāstra of Gauḍapāda ......................................... 61 6. Śaṅkara ................................................................................... 63 7. Kashmiri Śaivism .................................................................. 68 8. Jainism .................................................................................... 70 9. Early Vaiśeṣika ...................................................................... 79 10. Critiques of the Existence of a Thing before Its Arising 89 11. Nyāya ...................................................................................... 91 12. Mīmāṃsā ............................................................................... 98 13. The Abhidharmakośa Bhāṣya of Vasubandhu ................. 100 14. The Abhidharmasamuccaya of Asaṅga and Its Bhāṣya 106 15. Bhartṛhari ............................................................................... 108 16. The Problem of Negation .................................................... 117 17. Dignāga and Verbal Knowledge ........................................ 121 18. The Bodhisattvabhūmi ......................................................... 129 19. Prajñākaragupta .................................................................... 133 20. Indian Thinkers and the Correspondence Principle ...... 134 vi contents Appendix The Mahāprajñāpāramitāśāstra and the Sāṃkhya tanmātras 137 Bibliography ........................................................................................ 147 Cited Passages .................................................................................... 159 Index .................................................................................................... 167 PREFACE TO THE FRENCH EDITION The following work is based on a series of lectures delivered before the Section des Sciences Religieuses at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne, Paris) in May 1997. I had addressed the main sub- ject of these lectures before on other occasions, but never on this scale.1 The lectures in Paris gave me the opportunity to present the historical background of my subject, which I call the correspondence principle, as well as examples of its many manifestations. Not even a series of lectures, however, could do justice to the subject, and what follows is far from exhaustive. Ideas and intuitions about the relationship between language and reality abounded in classical India, and a full understanding of all their aspects, all their expressions, and the net- works of thought connecting them together is still a distant goal. The correspondence principle is presented here as a modest contribution to such a complete understanding. Its exploration has necessarily been limited to several more or less representative cases of philosophical thought in classical India. I hope my readers will pardon the somewhat arbitrary choice of thinkers studied. I am well aware that many think- ers, and even entire currents of thought, have not been mentioned in this book, though they might indeed have shed light on certain obscure points in our investigation. There are trails that remain unex- plored, thoughts still unexpressed. I can only hope that future research will help to fill in the gaps left by this exploratory study. In preparing this book and its preliminary studies, I have ben- efited from the critical responses of many colleagues and friends, too many to list them all. I would nevertheless like to mention here John Dunne, Vincent Eltschinger, Danielle Feller, Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, Eli Franco, Gerdi Gerschheimer, Brendan Gillon, Lars Göhler, Minoru Hara, Masaaki Hattori, Richard Hayes, Jan Houben, Shoryu Katsura, Katsumi Mimaki, Édith Nolot, Claus Oetke, Lambert Schmithausen, Frits Staal, Ernst Steinkellner, Tom Tillemans, Gary Tubb, Tilmann Vetter, François Voegeli, and Toshihiro Wada. I have learned a great 1 Lectures delivered elsewhere, but touching on aspects of the same theme, have been published separately; see e.g., Bronkhorst, 1996b and 1997, in the bibliography at the end of this work. viii preface to the french edition deal from the difficulties my students encountered in reading an ear- lier version of the text; the fault was entirely mine, and I can only hope that the causes of their confusion have now been cleared up, at least in part. I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this book in one way or another—sometimes with a pertinent criticism, sometimes by refusing to comprehend the incomprehensible, at other times with much appreciated encouragement. I am especially grateful to Marie-Louise Reiniche for organizing the lectures in Paris, and to Charles Malamoud and Lyne Bansat-Boudon, who gave me so much of their time in seminars. And I would like to thank my wife, Joy Manné, for her constant encouragement, even when she must have sometimes wondered whether my obsession with the arising of a pot had not gone too far. ABBREVIATIONS AAWL Abhandlungen der Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, Mainz, Geistes- und Sozialwis- senschaftliche Klasse Abhidh-d Abhidharmadīpa with Vibhāsāprabhāvṛ ̣tti, ed. P. S. Jaini, Patna 1959 (TSWS 4) Abhidh-hṛ(A) I. Armelin (tr.), Le coeur de la loi suprême, Traité de Fa-cheng, Abhidharmahṛdayaśāstra de Dharmaśrī, Paris 1978 Abhidh-k(VP) Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośa, traduit et annoté par Louis de La Vallée Poussin, 6 vols., Paris 1923– 1931 Abhidh-k-bh(D) Abhidharmakośa and Bhāsyạ of Ācārya Vasu- bandhu with Sphutārthạ̄ Commentary of Ācārya Yaśomitra, pts. 1–4, ed. Swami Dwarikadas Shastri, Varanasi 1970–1973 (BBhS 5, 6, 7, 9). Abhidh-k-bh(P) Vasubandhu, Abhidharmakośa Bhāsya,̣ ed. P. Prad- han, rev. 2nd ed. Aruna Haldar, Patna 1975 (TSWS 8) Abhidh-sam Asaṅga, Abhidharmasamuccaya, ed. P. Pradhan, Santiniketan (VBS 12) Abhidh-sam-bh Abhidharmasamuccaya Bhāsya,̣ ed. N. Tatia, Patna 1976 (TSWS 17) Abhidh-sam(R) Asaṅga, Le compendium de la superdoctrine (Abhidharmasamuccaya), tr. W. Rahula, Paris 1971 (PEFEO 78) ABORI