Apbharamsa Hindi Kosha

Kaundabhatta’s Vaiyakarana-bhushana is a massive work on semantic theory written in India in the 17th century. Kaundabhatta belonged to the tradition of Sanskrit grammar and in this work he consolidated the philosophy of language developed in the Paninian tradition of Sanskrit grammar. His work takes account of the philosophical debate which occurred in classical and medieval India among the philosophers and grammarians from about 500 bc. to the 17th century ad and primarily represents this debate between the traditions of Sanskrit grammar, Mimamsa, and Nyaya-Vaisheshika. It discusses ontological, epistemological, and exegetical issues concerning the notion of meaning as it relates to the various components of language. The present book is a heavily annotated translation of the Namartha-nirnaya section of Kauandabhatta’s Vaiyakarana-bhushana, with an extensive introduction. While there are several books that discuss Indian semantic theories in general terms, this book belongs to a small class of intensive, focused studies of densely written

Philosophical query into the working of language has occupied an important place in the rich tradition of thought in India since the ancient times. This book throws light on various debates in classical Indian Philosophical tradition concerning the structure of language and meaning. Papers in this book have been arranged in four groups basing on their thematic composition. The book begins with the general issues relating to language as figured in classical schools of Indian philosophy. Papers dealing with the semantic structure of language as discussed by Bhartrhari in his Vakyapadiya follow this. The next set of papers is related to some of the important semantic notions of Nyaya philosophy of language. In this respect notions like sense, reference, proper names, meaning, etc., have figured in for discussion. The last set of papers is concerned with the import of sentences wherein papers dealing with Purva-Mimamsa are included. One of the significant features of this volume is that some of the issues and problems in Indian Philosophy of language have been approached from the contemporary Western perspective with a view to explicate and evaluate them in a better way and this would be of considerable interest to scholars and students of philosophy, particularly those involved in the study of classical Indian philosophy.