Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTo Savor the Meaning offers a fascinating look into the merger of aesthetics and theology in Indian thought. Reich insightfully explores how Abhinavagupta analyzed the response to a poem as akin to God's self-reflection, what might have led to this view, and how it was later criticized, all in the context of the rich, multi-religious debates of Kashmir between the ninth and the twelfth centuries. * Yigal Bronner, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem *
To Savor the Meaning ventures into a significant but heretofore insufficiently explored area of intellectual enquiry: the relationship of aesthetics and religion in the Sanskritic learned literatures of Kashmir. The materials addressed in this book are complex, important, and fascinating, for Reich sets in comparison the approaches of two foundational authors of Indian aesthetics (alaṃkāraśāstra), the Śaiva polymath Abhinavagupta and the author of the Vyaktiviveka Mahimabhaṭṭa, both of whom flourished in Kashmir just after the turn of the second millennium. Lucidly written and exhibiting extensive learning, this book makes a significant contribution to the study of Indian religions. * John Nemec, Author of The Ubiquitous Śiva, vols. I and II (OUP 2011 and 2021) *
James Reich's study of the debate at the center of medieval Kashmiri philosophical aesthetics is an invaluable addition to the literature. It shows with exceptional clarity the complex argumentation inside two philosophical schools that sought to ground aesthetic philosophy in two different theologies; which reveals the grandeur and range of medieval Kashmiri philosophy. This will be an indispensable guide for those who, without being Sanskritists, wish to understand and make use of the immense diversity and subtlety of Kashmiri theories in philosophical aesthetics. * Sudipta Kaviraj, Columbia University *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part One: Emotion Manifested Chapter One: Abhinavagupta's Theology Chapter Two: Abhinavagupta and the Theology of Literature Chapter Three: Abhinavagupta's Literary Theory Part Two: Emotion Inferred Chapter Four: Mahimabhatta on Literary Knowing Chapter Five: The Will of Objects Chapter Six: Mahimabhatta on Literary Being: The Pragmatic Use of Illusion Conclusion Bibliography
