Meaning and Appearance: the Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir
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Meaning and Appearance: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Reich, James D. 2016. Meaning and Appearance: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:33493514 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Meaning and Appearance: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir A dissertation presented by James D. Reich to The Committee on the Study of Religion in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of The Study of Religion Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts April 2016 © 2016 James D. Reich All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Parimal G. Patil James D. Reich Meaning and Appearance: The Theology of Literary Emotions in Medieval Kashmir Abstract This dissertation examines a major debate in tenth- to twelfth-century Kashmiri literary theory between two famous theorists: Abhinavagupta and Mahimabha!!a, and shows that we cannot fully understand the debate between these two thinkers if we do not properly understand the religious context in which it took place. This is because the philosophical issues at stake in this debate, which concern the difference between how things appear and what they truly are, overlapped in important ways with theological debates going on at the time. So when a twelfth- century literary theorist discussed how the words of a poem relate to the mood at the core of the poem, he was at the same time discussing issues that were of basic theological importance in his context, such as God's relationship to the world, the self's relationship to actions, or the relations between knowledge, intuition, and memory. Part One looks at the famous theory of "poetic manifestation" developed in the ninth century by "nandavardhana and radically updated 150 years later by Abhinavagupta. In this half of the dissertation I explore the connection between Abhinavagupta's literary theory and his Hindu theology. Part Two of the dissertation looks at a famous attempt to refute the theory of poetic manifestation by Mahimabha!!a, a theorist writing in Kashmir within a generation of Abhinavagupta who relied heavily and explicitly on the Buddhist philosophy of Dharmak#rti. I show that Mahimabha!!a's use of Dharmak#rti was a direct response to the religious basis of Abhinavagupta's theory, as Dharmak#rti represented an inverted religious worldview from that of Abhinavagupta. This difference, in turn affects the conclusions these theorists reach about the ethical value of literature. Whereas Abhinavagupta ultimately concludes that the pleasure iii literature affords us is itself an ethical goal, Mahimabha!!a attributes only an instrumental value to the pleasure of literature, saying that it is like sugar coating on the bitter medicine of ethical lessons. These conclusions, I show, are not arbitrary, but are deeply tied to the assumptions underlying both aesthetic and religious ideas. iv Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………1 Part One: Emotion Manifested Chapter One: "nandavardhana and the Metaphysics of Literature……………………………...43 Chapter Two: Abhinavagupta and the Theology of Literature…………………………………108 Part Two: Emotion Inferred Chapter Three: Mahimabha!!a on Literary Knowing…………………………………………...225 Chapter Four: The Will of Objects……………………………………………………………..314 Chapter Five: Mahimabha!!a on Literary Being………………………………………………..361 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...393 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………………404 v Acknowledgments This dissertation would have been simply impossible without generous guidance, help, friendship, advice, conversation, and collaboration, and it gives me great pleasure to show some small bit of gratitude to all those who have been there along the way. My advisor, Parimal Patil, introduced me to the study of South Asian philosophy and first set me down the path on which I now find myself. His intellect and enthusiasm has been an inspiration over the years as he helped me acquire the knowledge and skills to eventually begin participating in the scholarship on this subject myself. Anne Monius introduced me to the study of South Asian literature and literary theory, and showed me how to read these subjects more sensitively than I ever would have on my own. Her endless and diligent feedback and comments on drafts of this dissertation are beyond my ability to repay. Without them I would surely be in poor shape, to say nothing of the dissertation itself. Lawrence McCrea very generously spent a summer with me in Ithaca reading Mahimabha!!a and explaining many of the (very complex) nuances of the text. His feedback was invaluable during the years in which I worked on this project. Many other scholars have been helpful to me as well. Frank Clooney’s classes at Harvard provided me with numerous opportunities to think carefully about religious philosophy from India. Charles Hallisey’s classes on Buddhism and Buddhist literature expanded my understanding of how texts could be read and how we might think about them. Janet Gyatso, who also helped me learn how to teach, gave a generous ear and helpful feedback when needed. Guy Leavitt taught me Sanskrit and gave me help with the Sanskrit materials at a few critical points in this project. Jack Hawley’s warm hospitality made me feel welcome and at home during a year spent taking graduate classes at Columbia University, and he has always been a valuable resource and source of scholarly inspiration for me. Sheldon Pollock welcomed me into his Sanskrit classes and gave thoughtful and serious comments on the papers I wrote for him on Sanskrit literary theory, from which I learned a great deal and for which I am very grateful. Somadeva Vasudeva showed me how to read Sanskrit analyses of literature early in my career, and also taught me a great deal about how to carefully and responsibly work with texts from the ancient past, lessons that I hope I have lived up to, as much as I can. It was Somadeva who introduced me to the work of Ruyyaka, from which I found my way to the subject of this dissertation. John Nemec provided much needed encouragement during the course of this project, and it was in conversation with him that I gained the critical insights necessary to write Chapter Four. Sudipta Kaviraj, with whom I studied Western literary theory at Columbia, has been a kind and generous mentor, and I have often motivated myself over the long years by reminding myself that I aspire to be worthy to share an intellectual community with him. No less helpful than these professors have been my colleagues and friends in various places. Ben Williams has been a trusted partner in crime for many years now, and has given me advice and shared materials whenever necessary. He and I have read a great deal of Sanskrit together, including many of the $aiva texts cited in this dissertation, and I look forward to reading more. Rosanna Picascia has also been a great reading partner and colleague, as has Hamsa Stainton. Drew Thomases read parts of this work and commented on them, and conversations with him about India always leave me invigorated and enthusiastic. Tyler Richard gave great editorial comments on Chapter One. Ofer Dynes read my introduction as well as Chapter Two, and spent many coffee breaks outside of libraries listening to my ideas and sharing perspectives from his work on European literature. Luke Bender has been a great friend, and we talked a great deal during our graduate careers about the parallels in our research, his on China vi and mine on India. He and I traded chapters of our dissertations as we wrote them, and being taken seriously and read carefully by him was always helpful and always flattering, given the quality of his own work. Oded Na’aman has been a close friend and inspiration for many years, and his depth, sincerity, and humor constantly remind me of what is really valuable. He read Chapter One and gave me feedback from a philosopher’s point of view, as did Anuk Arudpragasam, another close friend to whom I am grateful, and with whom I have shared many important conversations. Bernardo Zacka and Daniel May are two more friends who have contributed to my conviction that genuine intellectual work grows out of conversation and should feed back into it. Very special gratitude is due to Brenna McDuffie, friend and partner, who has been endlessly helpful and supportive. She has been there during the brightest as well as the darkest moments of this project, and her skill as an editor is matched only by the patience and warmth of her heart. Finally, I would like to express deep gratitude to my parents Matthew and Karen, as well as to my aunt and uncle Gary and Susanna, all my grandparents—in particular my grandmother Nancy Reich, the first PhD I knew, who taught me at a young age to know the label “intellectual” as a compliment—my sister Julia and cousin Laurel, and all of my ancestors who came before those named here. All of them together received, guarded, augmented, passed on, and surrounded me with a family tradition of conversing, opining, questioning, learning, and approaching the world with curiosity, humor, and kindness. I can only hope that I live up to the gifts they have given me, and that this project is one small part of a lifelong effort to pay it forward. vii The sea was not a mask.