Dialogue and Doxography in Indian Philosophy

This is the first book fully dedicated to Indian philosophical doxography. It examines the function such dialectical texts were intended to serve in the intellectual and religious life of their public. It looks at Indian doxography both as a witness of inter- and intra-sectarian dialogues and as a religious phenomenon. It argues that doxographies represent dialectical exercises, indicative of a peculiar religious attitude to plurality, and locate these ?exercises? within a known form of ?yoga? dedicated to the cultivation of ?knowledge? or ?gnosis? (j?ana).

Concretely, the book presents a critical examination of three Sanskrit doxographies: the Madhyamakah?dayakarika of the Buddhist Bhaviveka, the ?a?darsanasamuccaya of the Jain Haribhadra, and the Sarvasiddhantasa?graha attributed to the Advaitin Sa?kara, focusing on each of their respective presentation of the Mima?sa view.

It is the first time that the genre of doxography is considered beyond its literary format to ponder its performative dimension, as a spiritual exercise. Theoretically broad, the book reaches out to academics in religious studies, Indian philosophy, Indology, and classical studies.

"[This book] puts forward an innovative and attractive argument that the Indian doxographies he studies are not "objective" summaries of different contemporary Indian schools nor simply mnemonic forms for learning about and ranking one's opponents, but are rather pedagogical devices intended to draw the pupil towards an understanding of reality which surpasses conceptual formulations."

-Jacqueline G. Suthren Hirst,Journal of Dharma Studies