Abhinavagupta 1st introductory verse / different translations (original) (raw)
Journal of Indian Research, Vol. 1, Number 4 (October: December 2013): 1-24. Abhinavagupta (ca. 975-1025 C.E.) is the greatest synthesizer of Indian Tantric thought and practice. His works influenced and shaped theoretical paradigms in the field of Indian aesthetics, Tantra, literature, and philosophy. In this paper, the author examines the 105 verses of Abhinavagupta’s Paramārthasāra (Quintessence of the Highest Purpose) in which Abhinavagupta articulates his philosophy of absolute monism, known popularly as Kashmir Śaivism. An earlier Paramārthasāra was composed by the South Indian legendary saint, diśeṣa during the sixth century, some four hundred years before Abhinavagupta. Abhinavagupta’s reinvention of this older text indicates the constant transaction of ideas between Kashmir and South India, Vaiṣṇavite and Śaivite sects. The present shape of Indian thought emerged only as a result of the fusion and appropriation of different thought-streams. A translation of the Paramārthasāra along with an introduction into Abhinavagupta’s Monistic Śaivism has been herewith attempted.
Like a Bee to Nectar: Abhinavagupta's Poetics of Religious Formation
Journal of Dharma Studies, volume 3, Issue 2, pp. 373-387, 2020
Through a study of Abhinavagupta’s deployment of the metaphor of a bee in search of nectar, this article reconstructs a model of religious education implicit in Abhinavagupta’s representation of his own career as a student and guru. Based on a brief examination of the symbolism of the bee in classical Sanskrit poetry, the article elucidates how Abhinavagupta creatively implements prominent themes in this trope. Abhinavagupta’s use of the bee motif powerfully evokes his own liberal engagement with the intellectual culture and religious worlds of medieval Kashmir, and this educational ideal arguably carries prescriptive force for a qualified and sensitive audience. In considering the bee imagery across Abhinavagupta’s corpus, one encounters a vision of revelation that invites students to relish an all-encompassing truth present in all traditions as their essence, like a fragrance permeating a flower.
Abhinavagupta on the Kashmirian Gītā
Journal of Indian Philosophy, 2017
This paper announces the first critical edition of Abhinavagupta's commentary (entitled Gītārthasaṃgraha) on the Bhagavadgītā in its Kashmirian recension, based on one Kashmirian Devanāgarī and seven Ś āradā manuscripts in addition to two existing non-critical editions. The volume will also include a new edition of the Kashmirian recension of the Bhagavadgītā and a full French translation. After a short presentation of Abhinavagupta's commentary and a discussion of previous work on the subject, the manuscripts used are listed and briefly described. The question and importance of the Kashmirian recension of the Bhagavadgītā and problems of its edition are discussed in detail, with several textual examples. In order to give a sample of the Gītārthasaṃgraha's contents, some of Abhinavagupta's remarkable interpretations are also highlighted, in particular tantric or esoteric ones. An Appendix deals with the closely related question of Bhāskara the Vedāntin, his date, his provenance and the Gītā recension he probably used for his commentary.
Abhinavagupta's Unique Contribution to Indian Tradition
Abhinavagupta was the leading exponent and a staunch adherent of the Trika Philosophy of Kashmir. He was a mystic, a profoundly religious man, a scholar of great intellectual powers, a philosopher and a literary critic of great repute. He was born in a noble, learned and illustrious Brahmin family in Kashmir during second half of the 10 th century. Regarding his time K.C. Pandey says "it will not be wrong to say that he was born between 950-960 C.E." (Abhinvagupta, Ch. I, p 9). His father, Narasinghagupta alias Cukhulaka, was a religious minded person of scholastic attainments and mother Vimalakala, a pious orthodox lady (cf.