Tradition and Discipline

How should one read ancient Indian texts

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3606468
AutoresBharani Kollipara (Dhirubhai Ambani University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2016
Volumen50
Número4
Páginas1327-1402
Fecha de publicación2016-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaModern Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0026749x16000081
OpenAlexW2341970416
IdiomaEN
Referencias citadas50

This is a review article of two recent books. The first is D. Venkat Rao'sCultures of Memory in South Asia: Orality, Literacy and the Problem of Inheritance; the second, Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee'sThe Nay Science: A History of German Indology. Rao's conviction is that Indology has failed in its mandate. He claims that Indology so far has produced only European representations of India and not what should have been the choicest self-images of India's past. If Rao begins with a hostile tone towards Indology and expresses his intention to do something with India's texts without either relying on or having recourse to anything that belongs to the Indologist's ragbag, Adluri and Bagchee set out to expose what they refer to as Indology's 'pretension' to scientific method and objectivity in theirThe Nay Science, an unprecedented polemical history of German Indology. I divide this review into two parts: a critical examination ofThe Nay Science's critique of German Indology and its commitment to a methodological reform, and a distilled critical account ofCultures of Memory's approach to Indian textual traditions and the problems of such an approach. Finally, after examining the important challenges facing Indology, I'll make a case for how the philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre may help our understanding of the nature, dynamics, and the relevance of tradition in South Asia

Epistemology · German · Linguistics · Objectivity (philosophy · Sociology · Chinese history and philosophy · Classical Studies and Philology · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · Philosophy