This is a sequel to a volume published in 2011 by OUP under the title The Ubiquitous Śiva: Somānanda's Śivadṛṣṭi and his Tantric Interlocutors. The first volume offered an introduction, critical edition, and annotated translation of the first three chapters of the Śivadṛṣṭi of Somānanda, along with its principal commentary, the Śivadṛṣṭivṛtti, written by Utpaladeva. It dealt primarily with Śaiva theology and the religious views of competing esoteric traditions. The present volume presents the fourth chapter of the Śivadṛṣṭi and Śivadṛṣṭivṛtti and addresses a fresh set of issues that engage a distinct family of opposing schools and authors of mainstream Indian philosophical traditions. In this fourth chapter, Somānanda and Utpaladeva engage logical and philosophical works that exerted tremendous influence in the Indian subcontinent in its premodernity. Among the authors and schools addressed by Somānanda in this chapter are the Buddhist Epistemologists, and Dharmakīrti in particular; the Hindu school of hermeneutics, i.e., the Mīmāṃsā; the Hindu realist schools of the logic- and debate-oriented Nyāya and their ontologically-oriented partners, the Vaiśeṣika; and the Hindu, dualist Sāṃkhya and Yoga schools. Throughout this chapter, Somānanda endeavors to explain his brand of Śaivism philosophically. Somānanda challenges his philosophical interlocutors with a single over-arching argument: he suggests that their views cannot cohere--they cannot be explained logically--unless their authors accept the Śaiva non-duality for which he advocates. The argument he offers, despite its historical influence, remains virtually unstudied. The Ubiquitous Śiva Volume II offers the first English translation of Chapter Four of the Śivadṛṣṭi and Śivadṛṣṭivṛtti along with an introduction and critical edition.

This is a sequel to a volume published in 2011 by OUP under the title The Ubiquitous Siva: Somananda's Sivadrsti and his Tantric Interlocutors. The first volume offered an introduction, critical edition, and annotated translation of the first three chapters of the Sivadrsti of Somananda, along with its principal commentary, the Sivadrstivrtti, written by Utpaladeva. It dealt primarily with Saiva theology and the religious views of competing esoteric traditions. The present volume presents the fourth chapter of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti and addresses a fresh set of issues that engage a distinct family of opposing schools and authors of mainstream Indian philosophical traditions. In this fourth and final chapter, Somananda and Utpaladeva engage logical and philosophical works that exerted tremendous influence in the Indian subcontinent in its premodernity. Among the authors and schools addressed by Somananda in this chapter are the Buddhist Epistemologists, and Dharmakirti in particular; the Hindu school of hermeneutics, i.e., the Mimamsa; the Hindu realist schools of the logic- and debate-oriented Nyaya and their ontologically-oriented partners, the Vaisesika; and the Hindu, dualist Sankhya and Yoga schools. Throughout this chapter, Somananda endeavors to explain his brand of Saivism philosophically. Somananda challenges his philosophical interlocutors with a single over-arching argument: he suggests that their views cannot cohere--they cannot be explained logically--unless their authors accept the Saiva non-duality for which he advocates. The argument he offers, despite its historical influence, remains virtually unstudied. The Ubiquitous Siva Volume II offers the first English translation of Chapter Four of the Sivadrsti and Sivadrstivrtti along with an introduction and critical edition.

Medieval Kashmir in its golden age saw the development of some of the most sophisticated theories of language, literature, and emotion articulated in the pre-modern world. These theories, enormously influential on the later intellectual history of South Asia, were written at a time when religious education was ubiquitous among intellectuals, and when religious philosophies were hotly and publicly debated. It was also a time of deep interreligious influence and borrowing, when traditions intermixed and intellectuals pushed the boundaries of their own inheritance by borrowing ideas from many different places-even from their rivals. To Savor the Meaning examines the overlap of literary theory and religious philosophy in this period by looking at debates about how poetry communicates emotions to its readers, what it is readers do when they savor these emotions, and why this might be valuable. Focusing on the work of three influential figures-Anandavardhana [ca. 850 AD], Abhinavagupta [ca. 1000 AD], and the somewhat lesser known theorist Mahimabhatta [ca. 1050 AD]-this book gives a broad introduction to their ideas and reveals new, important, and previously overlooked aspects of their work and their debates. James D. Reich places these pre-modern intellectuals within the wider context of the religious philosophies current in Kashmir at the time, and shows that their ideas cannot be fully understood in isolation from this broader context.

Krishna's Mahabharatas: Devotional Retellings of an Epic Narrative is a comprehensive study of premodern regional Mahabharata retellings. This book argues that Vaishnavas (devotees of the Hindu god Vishnu and his various forms) throughout South Asia turned this epic about an apocalyptic, bloody war into works of ardent bhakti or "devotion" focused on the beloved Hindu deity Krishna. Examining over forty retellings in eleven different regional South Asian languages composed over a period of nine hundred years, it focuses on two particular Mahabharatas: Villiputturar's fifteenth-century Tamil Paratam and Sabalsingh Chauhan's seventeenth-century Bhasha (Old Hindi) Mahahbharat.

This proceedings volume brings together some 189 peer-reviewed papers presented at the International Conference on Information Technology and Computer Application Engineering, held 27-28 August 2013, in Hong Kong, China. Specific topics under consideration include Control, Robotics, and Automation, Information Technology, Intelligent Computing and Telecommunication, Computer Science and Engineering, Computer Education and Application and other related topics. This book provides readers a state-of-the-art survey of recent innovations and research worldwide in Information Technology and Computer Application Engineering, in so-doing furthering the development and growth of these research fields, strengthening international academic cooperation and communication, and promoting the fruitful exchange of research ideas. This volume will be of interest to professionals and academics alike, serving as a broad overview of the latest advances in the dynamic field of Information Technology and Computer Application Engineering.

Comprising more than twelve million people and renowned for their resistance to Brahminical values, the Virasaivas are a vibrant and unorthodox religious community with a provocative socio-political voice. The Virasaiva tradition has produced a vast and original body of literature, composed mostly in Kannada, a Dravidian language from south India. Siva's Saints introduces a previously unexplored and central primary work produced in the early thirteenth century, the Ragalegalu. This was the first narrative text written about the incipient devotional tradition dedicated to the god Siva in the Kannada-speaking regions; through stories of the saints, it images the life of this new religious community. The Ragalegalu inaugurated a new era in the production of devotional narratives accessible to wide audiences. Gil Ben-Herut challenges common notions about this tradition in its nascent phases. By closely reading the saints' stories in this text, Siva's Saints takes a more nuanced historical view than commonly-held notions about the egalitarian and iconoclastic nature of the early tradition, arguing instead that early bhakti (devotionalism) in the Kannada-speaking region was less-radical and more accommodating toward traditional religious, social, and political institutions than thought of today. In contrast to the narrowly sectarian and exclusionary vision that shapes later accounts, the Ragalegalu is characterized by an opposite impulse of offering an open invitation to people from all walks of life, and their stories illustrate the richness of their devotional lives. Analysis of this seminal text yields important insights into the role of literary representation of the social and political development of a religious community in a pre-modern and non-Western milieu.