Description
Book SynopsisThis study focuses on the devices implemented in Classical Indian texts on ritual and language in order to develop a structure of rules in an economic and systematic way. These devices presuppose a spatial approach to ritual and language, one which deals for instance with absences as substitutions within a pre-existing grid, and not as temporal disappearances. In this way, the study reveals a key feature of some among the most influential schools of Indian thought.
The sources are Kalpasūtra, Vyākaraṇa and Mīmāṃsā, three textual traditions which developed alongside each other, sharing – as the volume shows – common presuppositions and methodologies. The book will be of interest for Sanskritists, scholars of ritual exegesis and of the history of linguistics.
Table of ContentsContents: Scientific descriptive methods – Substitution patterns – Zero-theories – Extra-mathematical concept of placeholder – Conflict between different rules – Technical literatures in comparison: ritual and grammatical traditions – Space (vs. time) as conceptual background –
tantra (simultaneous application) vs.
prasaṅga (automatic involvement) – Automatic involvement and blocking of rules.
