Utpaladeva

Philosopher of Recognition

Raffaele Torella, Bettina Bäumer, Raffaele Torella, Bettina Bäumer

• Publisher: D.K. Printworld
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9788124608432
• eBook ISBN: 9788124610794
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Eastern Philosophy

About the 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. Dr. Bettina Bäumer, Indologist from Austria and Professor of Religious Studies (Visiting Professor at several universities), living and working in Varanasi since 1967, is the author and editor of a number of books and over 50 research articles. Her main fields of research are non-dualistic Kashmir ?aivism, Indian aesthetics, temple architecture and religious traditions of Odisha, and comparative mysticism. She has been Coordinator of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Varanasi, and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She has translated important Sanskrit texts into German and English. Dr. Bettina Bäumer, Indologist from Austria and Professor of Religious Studies (Visiting Professor at several universities), living and working in Varanasi since 1967, is the author and editor of a number of books and over 50 research articles. Her main fields of research are non-dualistic Kashmir ?aivism, Indian aesthetics, temple architecture and religious traditions of Odisha, and comparative mysticism. She has been Coordinator of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Varanasi, and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. She has translated important Sanskrit texts into German and English. About the 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 Pratyabhijñ? 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 (Vivr?ti) on his ??varapratyabhijñ?-k?rik? and Vr?tti, 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 ?aivism.

5

Utpala’s Insights into Aesthetics and

His Impact on Abhinavagupta’s

Aesthetic Speculation*

Navjivan Rastogi

Utpala is reckoned as a philosopher, a metaphysician, a devotee but not an art theoretician, nor an art critic, nor a literary genius. He also does not dwell directly on any matter aesthetic. So I owe an apology to the discerning readers for choosing this topic.

Let me admit that in choosing this topic I am inspired by my teacher K.C. Pandey who specially pinpoints Utpala’s impact on Abhinavagupta and his teachers1 and makes numerous allusions to Utpala’s formative insights and contribution in the domain of aesthetics and arts.2 Pandey remembers him as a probable commentator of the Nāṭyaśāstra or of some part of it, in any case as an authority on music. He specially takes note of Abhinavagupta’s conceptualization of vimarśa in terms of camatkāra expanded in his commentary on Utpala’s Vivr̥ti on three of the latter’s Īśvarapratyabhijñā-kārikās (ĪPK 1.5.11, 13; 2.3.8) being the underlining aestheticizing principle; notices the interconnection between vikalpahāna (loss/diminution of logical constructs) and the kathartic experience in drama towards occasioning universalization; unearths affinity between the metaphysical notion of pratibhā as maheśvara and the aesthetic notion of creativity and artistic sensitivity. Even prior to Pandey, though it came to my notice later, Kane3 referred to the direct influence of Utpala on the figure of speech called ullekha (representation). Working for my paper on camatkāra in 19884 I found that Gnoli also referred to the aesthetical significance of the notion of camatkāra crediting its first technical use to Utpala5 while tracing its conceptual evolution and discussing it against the background of its Western parallels. Raghavan constitutes another source of inspiration. While alluding to the authors quoted in the Abhinavabhāratī, he revisits Pandey’s references using additional sources buttressing a credible hypothesis of Utpala’s having attempted a work on music interpreting therein certain sections from Bharata’s text.6 Mukund Lath7 records Utpala’s views on indispensability of certain notes in gāndharva music and his difference from the later-day musicians such as Kallinātha, the author of the Kalānidhi, commentary on the Saṅgīta-Ratnākara of Śārṅgadeva. Lath even translates a relevant passage from the Abhinavabhāratī.

While sifting through the original accounts one might be tempted to examine the hypothetical possibility of Utpala’s being a grand-teacher of Abhinava in the sphere of aesthetics as well. Utpala was Abhinava’s grand-teacher in Pratyabhijñā, i.e. the teacher of his teacher Lakṣmaṇagupta. However, Abhinavagupta employs the title of paramaguru for Utpala even in former’s works on dramaturgy and poetics. Apparently there ought to be no incongruity in doing so, but given the fact that Abhinavagupta was endowed with an acute sense of history with an eye on precision and also that he learnt different disciplines from an exclusive set of teachers, this is likely to cause some confusion. Perhaps this could be the reason why Uttuṅgodaya, the Keralite author of the Kaumudī commentary on Abhinavagupta’s Locana, takes Utpala as the teacher of Bhaṭṭendurāja, Abhinavagupta’s teacher in the Dhvanyāloka.8 This ascription might be questioned on the ground that Uttuṅgodaya is glossing Abhinavagupta’s statement in the context of a citation from a Pratyabhijñā text.9 However, in another context, Abhinavagupta cites the explanation offered by his grand-teacher Utpaladeva and also notes his differences from him.10 Now, this is not a Pratyabhijñā context, but a situation where grand-teacher and grand-pupil are holding divergent views. Utpala could have been Abhinavagupta’s grand-teacher in a dramaturgic or specifically a musicological context thro...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Importance of Utpaladeva
• Viṣam apy amr̥tāyate . . .
• Detonating or Defusing Desire
• New Fragments of the Īśvarapratyabhijñā-vivr̥ti
• Utpala’s Insights into Aesthetics and His Impact on Abhinavagupta’s Aesthetic Speculation*
• Some Hitherto Unknown Fragments of Utpaladeva’s Vivr̥ti (I)
• Utpaladeva’s Proof of God
• Alaṁkāras in the Stotras of Utpaladeva
• The Twelve Kālīs and Utpaladeva’s Appraisal of the Sensory Experience
• Appendix I*
• Appendix II*
• Contributors
• Index*