- Universität Leipzig, Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften, Department MemberMartin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Philosophische Falultät I, Department MemberUniversity of Vienna, Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, Department Memberadd
- Sanskrit language and literature, South Asian Studies, Sanskrit, South Asia (History), Indian Philosophy, Classical Samkhya-Yoga, and 79 moreYoga Philosophy, Hathayoga, History Of Medicine In South Asia, Ayurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), Buddhist Studies, Pali literature & language, Textual Criticism, Indian studies, Philology, Buddhist Sanskrit, Vedic Sanskrit, South Asia, Tibetan Studies, Transmission of the Tibetan Kanjur, Comparative Mysticism, Cladistics, Humanities Computing (Digital Humanities), Textual Scholarship, Textual Criticism (Religion), Textual criticism (Humanities), Codicology, Paleography, Yoga Meditation, Manuscripts, Indology, Kashmir Shaivism, Shaiva Tantra, Brahmanism, Mantra, Shastra, Dharmasutras, Measuring Knowledge validity, Text Genealogy, Textual Criticism and Editorial Technique, Written Transmission, Valid Knowledge Definition, Yogic Concept of Human Body, Yoga of Suppression, Tibetan Kanjur, Stemma Codicum, Oeaw Kanjur, Mustang Kanjur, Anthropology, Definition of Valid Knowledge, Manuscript Studies, South Asian History, Tantric Studies, Himalayan culture, Religion, Religious Studies, Buddhism, Hinduism, Buddhist Philosophy, Vyakarana, History of Indian medical literature, History of Medicine in India, Phylogenetics, Sanskrit Manuscript, Hindu law, Pāśupata, Sanskrit poetry, Sanskrit Prosody and Metrics, History of Philosophy, Mahabharata, South Asian Religions, Yoga, Modern Yoga Studies, Pilgrimage, Digital Humanities, Comparative Religion, Mysticism, Samkhya and Yoga, Yoga Meditation and Learning, Mahayana, Social and Cultural Anthropology, Folklore (Literature), Cultural Anthropology, Hindu Studies, and Social Sciencesedit
- Philipp Maas is a historian of thought interested in premodern South Asian cultural, religious, and philosophical his... morePhilipp Maas is a historian of thought interested in premodern South Asian cultural, religious, and philosophical history. His primary areas of teaching and research are early classical Āyurveda, pre-classical and classical Sāṅkhya-Yoga, and classical Nyāya philosophy from various perspectives and with multiple methods. He sees the necessity to critically address the manuscript sources of Sanskrit texts to generate knowledge of what ancient authors and redactors thought and how and why their works were transformed over time. This attitude motivates his interest in text genealogy and textual criticism methodologies.edit
Research Interests:
Seit der Publikation der ersten kritischen Edition des Samādhipāda des Pātañjalayogaśāstra im Jahre 2006 sind mir eine Reihe von Fehlern in dieser Arbeit aufgefallen, die gemäß dieser Liste zu korrigieren sind.
Research Interests:
This volume explores aspects of yoga over a period of about 2500 years. In its first part, it investigates facets of the South Asian and Tibetan traditions of yoga, such as the evolution of posture practice, the relationship between yoga... more
This volume explores aspects of yoga over a period of about 2500 years. In its first part, it investigates facets of the South Asian and Tibetan traditions of yoga, such as the evolution of posture practice, the relationship between yoga and sex, yoga in the theistic context, the influence of Buddhism on early yoga, and the encounter of Islam with classical yoga. The second part addresses aspects of modern globalised yoga and its historical formation, as for example the emergence of yoga in Viennese occultism, the integration of yoga and nature cure in modern India, the eventisation of yoga in a global setting, and the development of Patañjali’s iconography. In keeping with the current trend in yoga studies, the emphasis of the volume is on the practice of yoga and its theoretical underpinnings.
Research Interests:
“Adaptive reuse,” an influential theoretical concept in the field of architecture, describes the reuse of partly reconstructed buildings for purposes different from those for which they were originally erected. In the present volume, this... more
“Adaptive reuse,” an influential theoretical concept in the field of architecture, describes the reuse of partly reconstructed buildings for purposes different from those for which they were originally erected. In the present volume, this concept is for the first time transferred from its edificial application to a wider specter of cultural activities, namely to the composition of texts and to the creation of concepts and rituals. The volume opens with an introduction in which the editors explain their understanding of of adaptive reuse and its innovative application to cultural studies. They differentiate between simple re-use and adaptive reuse as two ideal types of re(-)use. Simple re-use is the resumption of a previous use without a strong change of purpose. An item is simply used again, because it is readily available. Adaptive reuse implies more. The reuser aims at well-definable purposes, e.g., adding prestige, credibility or authority to the newly created work. The reused elements have therefore to be recognizable. Adaptive reuse ideally involves a strong change of usage, and it is not primarily motivated economically. The twelve main chapters of the volume are divided into four thematic sections. Section 1, “Adaptive Reuse of Indian Philosophy and Other Systems of Knowledge,” consists of five case studies by Philipp Maas, Himal Trikha, Ivan Andrijanic, Yasutaka Muroya and Malhar Kulkarni dealing with the adaptive reuse of Sanskrit philosophical and grammatical texts in Sanskrit works of philosophy, grammar and poetry. In all these cases, adaptive reuse serves the creation of new forms and contents within a traditionally established framework in which the prestige of the sources of adaptive reuse reflects upon its target. In the second section, entitled “Adaptive Reuse of Tropes,” Elena Mucciarelli and Cristina Bignami analyze the motif of the chariot in Vedic, medieval and contemporary works and rituals and fruitfully employ the concept of adaptive reuse in various religious contexts. The chapters of the third section “Adaptive Reuse of Untraced and Virtual Texts” by Daniele Cuneo, Kiyokazu Okita, Elisa Freschi and Cezary Galewicz deal again with philosophical and religious texts, this time focusing on the adaptive reuse of sources that are no longer available or did never exist. It emerges from these studies that reuse of virtual texts was frequently intended to support the introduction of innovations into established traditions. In some cases, the prestige of the reusing works even reflected back on the allegedly reused source. Finally, the chapter by Sven Sellmer in the fourth section “Reuse from the Perspective of the Digital Humanities” deals with the computer-based identification of possibly reused text-passages in epic literature that otherwise would remain undetectable.
Research Interests: Jainism, Indian Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy, Yoga Philosophy, Sanskrit language and literature, and 21 moreVyakarana, Sanskrit, Adaptive Reuse, Indian Art, Advaita Vedanta, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Mahabharata, Sankara, Ancient Indian Archaeology, VEDA, Gaudiya Vaishnavism, Quotations, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, History of Alankarashastra, Kavya, Dharmakīrti, Religious Processions, Dhvani and Rasa Theory, Textual Reuse, and Dvaita Vedānta
Contents - Jürgen Hanneder: Introduction - Reinhold Grünendahl: Post-philological Gestures - "Deconstructing" Textual Criticism - Wendy J. Phillips-Rodriguez - Christopher J. Howe - Heather F. Windram: Some Considerations about... more
Contents
- Jürgen Hanneder: Introduction
- Reinhold Grünendahl: Post-philological Gestures - "Deconstructing" Textual Criticism
- Wendy J. Phillips-Rodriguez - Christopher J. Howe - Heather F. Windram: Some Considerations about Bifurcation in Diagrams Representing the Written Transmission of the Mahabharata
- Pascale Haag: Problems of Textual Transmission in Grammatical Literature: The pratyahara Section of the Kasikavrtti
- Philipp A. Maas: Computer Aided Stemmatics - The Case of Fifty-Two Text Versions of Carakasamhita Vimanasthana 8.67-157
- Christina Pecchia: Transmission-specific (In)utility, or Dealing with Contamination: Samples from the Textual Tradition of the Carakasamhita
- Birgit Kellner: Towards a Critical Edition of Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika
- Yasutaka Muroya: A Study on the Marginalia in Some Nyayamañjari Manuscripts: The Reconstruction of a Lost Portion of the Nyayamañjari- granthibhanga
- Anna Aurelia Esposito: Some Aspects of Textual Criticism Concerning the Keralite Drama Manuscripts
- Stanislav Jager: Editing Rajanaka Ratnakantha's Suryastutirahasya and Ratnasataka
- Takahiro Kato: Bhaskara's Brahmasutrabhasya - An Unpublished Edition by J.A.B. van Buitenen
- and more ...
- Jürgen Hanneder: Introduction
- Reinhold Grünendahl: Post-philological Gestures - "Deconstructing" Textual Criticism
- Wendy J. Phillips-Rodriguez - Christopher J. Howe - Heather F. Windram: Some Considerations about Bifurcation in Diagrams Representing the Written Transmission of the Mahabharata
- Pascale Haag: Problems of Textual Transmission in Grammatical Literature: The pratyahara Section of the Kasikavrtti
- Philipp A. Maas: Computer Aided Stemmatics - The Case of Fifty-Two Text Versions of Carakasamhita Vimanasthana 8.67-157
- Christina Pecchia: Transmission-specific (In)utility, or Dealing with Contamination: Samples from the Textual Tradition of the Carakasamhita
- Birgit Kellner: Towards a Critical Edition of Dharmakirti's Pramanavarttika
- Yasutaka Muroya: A Study on the Marginalia in Some Nyayamañjari Manuscripts: The Reconstruction of a Lost Portion of the Nyayamañjari- granthibhanga
- Anna Aurelia Esposito: Some Aspects of Textual Criticism Concerning the Keralite Drama Manuscripts
- Stanislav Jager: Editing Rajanaka Ratnakantha's Suryastutirahasya and Ratnasataka
- Takahiro Kato: Bhaskara's Brahmasutrabhasya - An Unpublished Edition by J.A.B. van Buitenen
- and more ...
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter first presents a historical narrative based on previous scholarship that identifies the rivalry of the two religious complexes of Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism on the one hand and of the so-called śramaṇa religions on the other... more
This chapter first presents a historical narrative based on previous scholarship that identifies the rivalry of the two religious complexes of Vedism or Vedic Brahmanism on the one hand and of the so-called śramaṇa religions on the other as an important factor for the origin and development of the multiple religious traditions that are called Hinduism. More specifically, according to this hypothesis, religious theories of karma and rebirth that are first clearly documented in the literature of the śramaṇa religions were actually inherited by these religions from their common cultural substratum. Vedic Brahmanism, which apparently emerged from a different cultural substratum, originally did not have its own theories of karma and rebirth but adaptively reused karma and rebirth theories of the śramaṇa religions in the late Vedic period. The hybridisation of religious ideas from the śramaṇa milieu with that of Vedic Brahmanism played an important role in the emergence of early classical Hinduism, as it appears in the Mahābhārata and other sources. In its second part, the present chapter supplies evidence in support of this hypothesis. The support is derived from an interpretation of a brief narrative that reflects the religious debate about competing religious causalities concerning the post-mortem fate of humans. Within the narrative, the just deceased king and sacrifice Somaka and the god Yama (or Dharma), who administers the cognizance over the dead according to the law of karma, lead a juridical debate about how to convict a sacrificial priest and a sacrificer, i.e. the king himself, for the ethically objectionable act of a human sacrifice. The solution of the conflict implicitly establishes, as the message of the narrative, a hierarchy of competing causalities, according to which ritual actions, i.e. Vedic sacrifices, are of no avail for the destiny of humans in the next world. The post-mortem fate of humans is generally determined by the law of karma, which, however, can be modified and overruled by asceticism. This message aims with literary means at creating acceptance for the belief in the karma and rebirth theory presented in the narrative, as well as for the power of asceticism within the religious milieu of the Mahābhārata.
Research Interests: Religion, Hinduism, Indian Philosophy, History of Religion, Indian studies, and 14 moreSouth Asian Studies, Ritual, Sanskrit language and literature, South Asia, Sanskrit, Human sacrifice (Anthropology Of Religion), South Asian Literature, South Asian Religions, Epic poetry, Southeast Asian history, Sanskrit Philology, Mahabharata, Mahābhārata, and Pilgramage
This article discusses the peculiar Sāṅkhya-Yoga theory of transformation (pariṇāma) that the author of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra created by drawing upon Sarvāstivāda Buddhist theories of temporality. In developing his theory, Patañjali... more
This article discusses the peculiar Sāṅkhya-Yoga theory of transformation (pariṇāma) that the author of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra created by drawing upon Sarvāstivāda Buddhist theories of temporality. In developing his theory, Patañjali adaptively reused the wording in which the Sarvāstivāda theories were formulated, the specific objections against these theories, and their refutations to win the philosophical debate about temporality against Sarvāstivāda Buddhism. Patañjali’s approach towards the Sarvāstivāda Buddhist theories was possible, even though his system of Yoga is based on an ontology that differs considerably from that of Sarvāstivāda Buddhism because both systems share the philosophical view that time is not a separate ontological entity in itself. Time is a concept deduced from change in the empirical world. This agreement results from the common philosophical orientation of Sarvāstivāda Buddhism and Yoga, which takes the phenomenon of experience as the basis of philosophical enquiry into the structure of the world. The intention that guided Patañjali’s adaptive reuse was twofold. On the one hand, he aimed at winning the debate with Sarvāstivāda Buddhism about how the problem of temporality can be solved. He thus integrated four mutually exclusive theories on temporality into a single theory of transformation of properties (dharma) involving a second-level and a third-level theory on the transformation of the temporal characteristic mark (lakṣaṇa) and on the transformation of states (avasthā), respectively. On the other hand, Patañjali intended to achieve philosophical clarification regarding the question of how exactly properties relate to their underlying substrate in the process of transformation of the three constituents or forces (guṇa) sattva, rajas and tamas of matter (pradhāna) that account for all phenomena of the world except pure consciousness (puruṣa). Patañjali’s theory of transformation is thus of central importance for his Sāṅkhya ontology, according to which the world consists of 25 categories or constituents (tattva), i.e., of primal matter (prakṛti) and its transformations and pure consciousness.
Research Interests:
The early-classical and classical Āyurvedic compendia of Caraka, Bhela, Suśruta, and Vāgbhaṭa contain mutually related and supplementary classification systems concerning the charac¬ter or natural constitution of human beings that are... more
The early-classical and classical Āyurvedic compendia of Caraka, Bhela, Suśruta, and Vāgbhaṭa contain mutually related and supplementary classification systems concerning the charac¬ter or natural constitution of human beings that are respectively based on medical, psychological, and physical conceptions. Of these, a specific medical classification system that is intimately related to the central Āyurvedic doctrine of the three pathogenetic substances wind (vāta), bile (pitta), and phlegm (śleṣman) (frequently called doṣa or humors) became “highly developed” in classical and medieval Āyurveda “and forms one of the most prominent parts of New Age ayurveda.”*. The present article deals with the earliest documented Āyurvedic doctrines of humoral constitutions as they appear in the Carakasaṃhitā, a Sanskrit work that can be roughly dated to the period of 100 BCE–200 CE for its older parts. More precisely, the article draws attention to the fact that four different humoral classification systems are attested in the Caraksaṃhitā. These systems deviate from each other with regard to the acknowledged number of humoral categories and concerning their respective conceptions of the ideal state to be achieved (or re-established) by medical practice, i.e., health. In its final conclusion, the article argues that these deviations reflect different strategies of harmonizing the doctrine of unchangeable humoral constitutions with the central Āyurvedic conception of health as resulting from a suitable amount of all three humors within the human body.
*Wujastyk, Dominik. The Roots of Ayurveda. Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. 3. ed. London, New York, etc.: Penguin Books, 2003, p. 8.
*Wujastyk, Dominik. The Roots of Ayurveda. Selections from Sanskrit Medical Writings. Translated with an Introduction and Notes. 3. ed. London, New York, etc.: Penguin Books, 2003, p. 8.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter is largely devoted to the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (PYŚ) and the history of its reception. More specifically, it investigates Patañjali’s treatment of yogic postures (āsana), starting with a contextualisation of the role of... more
This chapter is largely devoted to the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (PYŚ) and the history of its reception. More specifically, it investigates Patañjali’s treatment of yogic postures (āsana), starting with a contextualisation of the role of āsana-s within the yogic path to liberation. It then analyses the passage PYŚ 2.46–48 and demonstrates that the two sūtra-s 2.46 and 2.47 should be understood as a single sentence. This is followed by a discussion of the list of posture names in the PYŚ as well as of the possible nature of the postures themselves from a philological perspective. The critical edition of the text of PYŚ 2.46 provides the basis for a detailed comparison of various descriptions of posture performance in medieval commentaries on the PYŚ and in the authoritative Jaina yoga treatise by Hemacandra. This comparison reveals that designations of āsana-s and the descriptions of their performance may differ from source to source. However, all analysed sources agree in presenting āsana as a complex of psycho-physiological practices meant to enable the yogi to undertake long sessions of exercises, such as breath control, and of various kinds of meditation, rather than mere performances of bodily configurations as means in themselves.
Research Interests:
In this chapter the thematic focus shifts from the description and analysis of yoga in individual religious and philosophical traditions of premodern South Asia to the cultural transfer of yoga from South Asia to the Arab intellectual... more
In this chapter the thematic focus shifts from the description and analysis of yoga in individual religious and philosophical traditions of premodern South Asia to the cultural transfer of yoga from South Asia to the Arab intellectual world in the Middle Ages. After providing an introduction to the life and work of al-Bīrūnī, the famous Perso-Muslim polymath who lived at the turn of the first millennium CE and spent some years in north-western South Asia, it surveys previous scholarly attempts to identify the Sanskrit source of his Kitāb Pātanğal, an Arab rendering of a yoga work in the tradition of Patañjali. The two authors arrive at the novel hypothesis that al-Bīrūnī may have used the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (i. e., the Yogasuūtra together with the so-called Yogabhāṣya) as the main source of the Kitāb Pātanğal. This finding provides the basis for a new assessment of this work as the result of different literary transformations, some of which necessarily had to be highly creative in order to transfer the philosophical and religious content of a Sanskrit yoga work of the late fourth or early fifth century into the intellectual culture of medieval Islam. Taking into consideration these creative aspects of the Kitāb Pātanğal, Maas and Verdon demonstrate that the aspiration of the Perso-Muslim author was not merely to provide a translation faithful to the wording of its source text, but to make the spiritual dimension of yoga accessible to his Muslim readership.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This chapter deals with rasāyana in the disciplines of Yoga and Ayurveda. By interpreting the two difficult and obscure text passages of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra that mention rasāyana in the light of older commentaries and on the basis of... more
This chapter deals with rasāyana in the disciplines of Yoga and Ayurveda. By interpreting the two difficult and obscure text passages of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra that mention rasāyana in the light of older commentaries and on the basis of additional references to rasāyana and related conceptions in early classical āyurvedic and upaniṣadic literature, the chapter concludes that for Patañjali rasāyana was a herbal preparation leading to longevity and other unspecified superpowers. Some commentators of the Pātañjalayogaśāstra, however, interpreted Patañjali’s mentioning of rasāyana differently. While Vācaspatimiśra I in the later half of the tenth century followed the Pātañjalayogaśāstra closely, the eleventh-century commentator Bhoja related rasāyana to alchemy. Finally, the eighth-century (?) commentator Śaṅkara interpreted Patañjali’s mentioning of rasāyana as a reference to Āyurveda. Even though this interpretation is probably at odds with Patañjali’s authorial intention, it is not at all far fetched, since the oldest sources present rasāyana as a means for the acquisition not only of longevity but also of further extraordinary qualities and powers. Āyurvedic rasāyana is, however, in several respects a foreign element in mainstream Āyurveda. A historical process of integration is reflected in the widely accepted etymological derivation of rasāyana as a way (ayana) of reinvigorating bodily elements (rasa). Ultimately however, this etymology is based on an anachronistic interpretation of the ancient definition of rasāyana in Carakasaṃhitā Cikitsāsthāna 1.1.7–8. The original cultural and religious environment of rasāyana remains to be determined.
Research Interests:
The present Chapter discusses two cases of adaptive reuse of religio-philosophical ideas and text passages from the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (“The Authoritative Expo-sition of Yoga by Patañjali,” PYŚ) in a work of high-class poetry, i.e. in... more
The present Chapter discusses two cases of adaptive reuse of religio-philosophical ideas and text passages from the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (“The Authoritative Expo-sition of Yoga by Patañjali,” PYŚ) in a work of high-class poetry, i.e. in stanzas 4.55 and 14.62 of Māgha’s epic poem Śiśupālavadha (“The Slaying of Śiśupāla,” ŚPV). After a brief introduction to these two quite different literary works in sections 1 and 2, the Chapter outlines the history of research on the ŚPV and its relationship to Sāṅkhya and Yoga philosophy in section 3. The very fact the Māgha alluded to Sāṅkhya and Yoga conceptions in his poem is known in indological research for more than one hundred years, but the exact nature of these references was never investigated in detail. This topic is addressed in the first part of Section 4, which interprets stanzas 4.55 and 14.62, highlights the text passages and conceptions of classical Yoga that Māgha reused, analyses the specific contexts in which the reuse occurs, and suggests possible answers to the question of which authorial intentions actually may have led Māgha to reuse Patañjali’s authoritative work on Yoga. The concluding part of section 4 investigates the reception of Māgha’s reuse by the 10th century Kashmiri commentator Vallabhadeva. Section 5, the conclusion, highlights the main historical result of the paper, namely that the PYŚ was widely known as a unitary authoritative work of Yoga theory and practice in different parts of South Asia at least from the eight to the tenth century. It was this very appraisal of the work in (at least in in some) educated circles that suggested it to Māgha as a source of reuse in order to achieve two interrelated purposes: On the one hand his reuse contributed to strengthening and maintaining the authoritativeness of the śāstra, and on the other hand it charged the objects of Māgha’s poetical descriptions as well as his very poem with the philosophical and religious prestige of the śāstra.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Jainism, Cultural History, Cultural Studies, Digital Humanities, Indian Philosophy, and 23 moreHistory of Religion, South Asian Studies, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Sanskrit language and literature, South Asia, Tantric Studies, Sanskrit, Vedic Sanskrit, Vaishnavism, Adaptive Reuse, Indian Art, Advaita Vedanta, Tantra, Mimamsa, Nyaya, Religious Studies, Sanskrit Grammar and Linguistics, Indology, Religion and Art, Sanskrit Studies, Sanskrit Aesthetics, Indian Philosophy, Indian Music, Dance and Arts, Indian Philosophy and Religion, Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta, and Quotes
In his monograph entitled “The Fall of the Indigo Jackal. The Discourse of Division and Pūrṇabhadra’s Pañcatantra” (Taylor 2007), McComas Taylor projects a theory of Michel Foucault’s onto the Sanskrit literary tradition of the... more
In his monograph entitled “The Fall of the Indigo Jackal. The Discourse of Division and Pūrṇabhadra’s Pañcatantra” (Taylor 2007), McComas Taylor projects a theory of Michel Foucault’s onto the Sanskrit literary tradition of the Pañcatantra (PT) in order to show that a historically unchanging and uniform discourse of social division provides the backdrop against which a number of narratives may be interpreted. Without entering into a detailed methodological discussion, the present article argues in its first part that Taylor’s hermeneutical approach is problematic. It shows that Taylor’s interpretation of a number of PT narratives is far fetched and that his hermeneutical approach is circular. In its second part, the present paper demonstrates that several discourses of social division and other dharma-related topics that are not discussed in Taylor 2007 provide indeed the background for an appropriate interpretation of two recensions of the same narrative that appear in two recensions of the PT. The earlier recension of the “Weaver as Viṣṇu” uses discourses of dharma-related topics in a humorous and satirical manner, whereas the later recension is strongly censored from a conservative brahmanical perspective.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
By taking a special focus on the application of the so-called stemmatical method to an extensive textual tradition, this paper illustrates how a well-established hypothesis concerning the textual history of the Carakasaṃhitā is frequently... more
By taking a special focus on the application of the so-called stemmatical method to an extensive textual tradition, this paper illustrates how a well-established hypothesis concerning the textual history of the Carakasaṃhitā is frequently useful — and in some cases, even indispensable — to judge the genealogical relationship of different versions of the same text. The fundamental importance of stemmatics for the editorial process may not, however, distract from the simple fact that in dealing with large and ancient traditions of Sanskrit texts, the application of this method does not automatically result in the reconstruction of a historically correct textual version.
This paper is a thoroughly corrected and revised edition of Ph. A. Maas, Towards a Critical Edition of the Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna — First Results. Indian Journal of History of Science 44.2 (2009), p. 163-185. 2009b.
This paper is a thoroughly corrected and revised edition of Ph. A. Maas, Towards a Critical Edition of the Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna — First Results. Indian Journal of History of Science 44.2 (2009), p. 163-185. 2009b.
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Buddhism, Comparative Religion, Indian Philosophy, Plato, Mimesis, and 34 moreIndian studies, Yoga, Yoga Philosophy, Yoga Meditation, Sanskrit language and literature, Sanskrit, Mysticism, Oral Traditions, Codicology, Classical Samkhya-Yoga, Indian Literature, Kabbalah, Orality, Brahmanism, Samkhya and Yoga, Vedanta, Yogacara, Consciousness Studies, Yoga Meditation and Learning, Manuscripts, Esoteric Philosophy, Indology, Tantrism, Comparative Mystical Literature, VEDA, Kashmir Shaivism, Mahayana, Shaiva Tantra, Mantra, Kashimir Shaivism, Abhinavagupta, Shastra, Dharmasutras, and Universal Spirituality
Exponents of Global Ayurveda have managed to develop Āyurveda, an ancient native medical system of South Asia, into a renowned supplement to Western biomedicine. This commercial and promotional success has been bolstered by a number of... more
Exponents of Global Ayurveda have managed to develop Āyurveda, an ancient native medical system of South Asia, into a renowned supplement to Western biomedicine. This commercial and promotional success has been bolstered by a number of characteristic assertions concerning the history of pre-modern Āyurveda. New Age Ayurveda, for example, maintains that Āyurveda is more than five thousand years old, that it is the origin of Greek humoral medicine, and that it is intrinsically connected with the Hindu spiritual tradition of yoga. From an academic perspective, these claims are easily refutable, since they contradict well-known results of modern indological research. Drawing upon these, the present paper sketches the South Asian intellectual history from its beginnings to the classical period, determines the intellectual milieu from which classical Āyurveda originated, describes some of its fundamental medical theories, and reconsiders their historical relationship to ancient Greek humoral medicine.
Research Interests:
The paper shows that – and how – a hypothetical stemma can be established for the passage Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.67-157, although large parts of the transmission of this work as reflected in a collation of fifty-two paper... more
The paper shows that – and how – a hypothetical stemma can be established for the passage Carakasaṃhitā Vimānasthāna 8.67-157, although large parts of the transmission of this work as reflected in a collation of fifty-two paper manuscripts are heavily contaminated. The method towards this end integrates two complementary approaches: the computer- based cladistic analysis of variant readings (i.e. a quantitative approach) and the philological discussion of selected variants (i.e. a qualitative approach).
After brief introductory remarks on the theoretical foundations of textual criticism and of cladistics I analyze the complete set of variant readings with the help of the parsimony analysis contained in the computer program PAUP* 4.0. The result is a phylogenetic tree, i.e. a diagram of the transmission similar to a stemma. The initial result will be discussed with regard to the overall structure of the diagram as well as to the position of individual manuscripts. The question that will be dealt with is whether the variants used by the computer program to establish the branching of the tree really reveal the genealogical relationship of manuscripts. The initial phylogenetic tree, a first approximation of the transmission history, is then modified and transformed into the hypothetical stemma according to the results of a philological discussion of variant readings. In a number of cases, the results of the philological discussion of variant readings are supported by the results of additional cladistic calculations, which are based upon reduced data sets. I include the results of these calculations in order to show that the philological discussion of variants is not guided by a biased selection of individual variants. Finally, I show that a cladistic analysis of substantial variants for selected manuscripts leads to a quite consistent cladogram, which may confidently be taken to represent the backbone of the stemma.
After brief introductory remarks on the theoretical foundations of textual criticism and of cladistics I analyze the complete set of variant readings with the help of the parsimony analysis contained in the computer program PAUP* 4.0. The result is a phylogenetic tree, i.e. a diagram of the transmission similar to a stemma. The initial result will be discussed with regard to the overall structure of the diagram as well as to the position of individual manuscripts. The question that will be dealt with is whether the variants used by the computer program to establish the branching of the tree really reveal the genealogical relationship of manuscripts. The initial phylogenetic tree, a first approximation of the transmission history, is then modified and transformed into the hypothetical stemma according to the results of a philological discussion of variant readings. In a number of cases, the results of the philological discussion of variant readings are supported by the results of additional cladistic calculations, which are based upon reduced data sets. I include the results of these calculations in order to show that the philological discussion of variants is not guided by a biased selection of individual variants. Finally, I show that a cladistic analysis of substantial variants for selected manuscripts leads to a quite consistent cladogram, which may confidently be taken to represent the backbone of the stemma.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper is part of a series of articles by the present author dealing with the textual transmission of the oldest classical Āyurveda work in Sanskrit, the Carakasaṃhitā (CS). It starts with an analysis of the CS’ two well-known... more
This paper is part of a series of articles by the present author dealing with the textual transmission of the oldest classical Āyurveda work in Sanskrit, the Carakasaṃhitā (CS). It starts with an analysis of the CS’ two well-known references to its own textual history occurring in Cikitsāsthāna 30.289-290 and Siddhisthāna 12.36c-12.40b. These references provide information on the attitude of Dṛḍhabala, the alleged final redactor of the work, towards the textual tradition of classical Āyurveda. They also tell us that Dṛḍhabala composed seventeen chapters of the Cikitsāsthāna as well as the complete Kalpa- and Siddhisthāna in order to finish the incomplete work. Since the CS Cikitsāsthāna is known from early printed editions to exist in two different versions, this information is, however, not sufficient to clarify Dṛḍhabala’s role in the formation of the work. Two questions remain to be answered: (1.) Which chapters of the Cikitsāsthāna belong to the oldest stock of the work? (2.) Which of the two conflicting sequence of chapters in the Cikitsāsthāna is the original one? Both questions were recently discussed by Meulenbeld in vol. 1A of his monumental work “A History of Indian Medical Literature”. The present paper reviews Meulenbeld’s discussion and reaches the conclusion that question no. (1.) can be answered almost with certainty, where as question no. (2.) cannot be answered at all on the basis of the historical sources which were at Meulenbeld’s disposal. Additional evidence is then sought from applying a stemmatical hypothesis, which was recently developed by research into the transmission of the CS Vimānasthāna, to the transmission of the CS Cikitsāsthāna. It turns out that the stemma of the CS Vimānasthāna, at least in its broad outline, is also valid for the Cikitsāsthāna and possibly even for the whole CS. But even this new source of information does not solve the question of the original sequence of Cikitsāsthāna chapters, since the two conflicting sequences are characteristics of the two main branches of the transmission, which derived directly from the oldest reconstructable CS version, i.e. from the archetype. Accordingly, the CS Cikitsāsthāna and also other parts of the work must have been thoroughly revised at least once quite soon after Dṛḍhabala had executed his famous revision.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy, Indian studies, South Asian Studies, Yoga, Yoga Medicine, and 11 moreYoga Philosophy, Textual Criticism, Sanskrit language and literature, Ayurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), South Asia, Sanskrit, Codicology, South Asia (History), Samkhya and Yoga, Hatha Yoga, and Modern Yoga Studies
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Two until then unknown collections of canonical Tibetan texts were examined by a team of the Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project in Mustang in 1996. The Rāja of Mustang gave his permission to take pictures of two separate texts... more
Two until then unknown collections of canonical Tibetan texts were examined by a team of the Nepal German Manuscript Preservation Project in Mustang in 1996. The Rāja of Mustang gave his permission to take pictures of two separate texts from both collections, one of them being the Tibetan Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra (ANS).
As this work had been critically edited by J. Braarvig some time before, the comparison of the newly available versions with the edited text admitted a comparatively quick judgement on their position within the transmission of the Tibetan Kanjur.
In accordance with the results of J. Braarvig´s research work it can be shown that the ANS has been transmitted in two different recensions. The first is derived from an early translation of the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra into Tibetan, while the second one is the result of a later revision of this translation.
The earlier translation is preserved in the so called Them spaṅs ma line of transmission of the Tibetan Kanjur, while the revised text can be found in all textual witnesses belonging to the so called Tshal pa line. The two Mustang-versions — one of them being a transcript of the other — seem to preserve this recension of the ANS more faithfully than any other textual witness from the Tshal pa line or even the first Tshal pa manuscript itself.
As this work had been critically edited by J. Braarvig some time before, the comparison of the newly available versions with the edited text admitted a comparatively quick judgement on their position within the transmission of the Tibetan Kanjur.
In accordance with the results of J. Braarvig´s research work it can be shown that the ANS has been transmitted in two different recensions. The first is derived from an early translation of the Akṣayamatinirdeśasūtra into Tibetan, while the second one is the result of a later revision of this translation.
The earlier translation is preserved in the so called Them spaṅs ma line of transmission of the Tibetan Kanjur, while the revised text can be found in all textual witnesses belonging to the so called Tshal pa line. The two Mustang-versions — one of them being a transcript of the other — seem to preserve this recension of the ANS more faithfully than any other textual witness from the Tshal pa line or even the first Tshal pa manuscript itself.
Research Interests:
The Nyāya (“logic”) is one of the most important traditions of classical Indian philosophy. Its foundational treatise, the Nyāyasūtra, was basically finalized by anonymous redactors in the second half of the fourth century and was... more
The Nyāya (“logic”) is one of the most important traditions of classical Indian philosophy. Its foundational treatise, the Nyāyasūtra, was basically finalized by anonymous redactors in the second half of the fourth century and was commented upon shortly afterwards by Pakṣilasvāmin Vātsyāyana. A nine-year research project funded by the German Research Council (DFG) establishes a critical text of chapters 3 and 4 based on more than forty manuscripts as primary witnesses, selected printed editions, and the secondary transmission in the form of quotations and references to the Nyāyabhāṣya in commentaries and other Sanskrit works. This text-critical and text-historical work along traditional philological lines is facilitated and enriched by phylogenetic analyses of the texts transmitted by the primary witnesses. Next to the establishment of the critical text, further major aims of the project are the digital publication of this text, accompanied by a full documentation of the text versions found in all primary and secondary witnesses, and detailed manuscript descriptions. This will take place on the innovative web platform SAMUDDHĀRA, which is in the process of being developed especially for the project and will allow free access to the texts, and thus open up the possibility of investigating the variations that characterize the many extant versions of the two chapters. The application will also function as an open-access multi-user web-based Virtual Research Environment for any text-critical and text-historical work based on a large number of witnesses, primarily relating to the literary and scientific traditions of South Asia as such.
Research Interests:
A recording of the presentation at the online symposium Greater Magadha: Evaluation and Retrospective organised at the University of Alberta
Research Interests:
In this episode, we speak with return guest Dr. Philipp Maas about the ancient school of Sāṅkhya—which he describes as India's philosophy par excellence for its wide and enduring influence on Indian culture.
Research Interests:
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Philipp Maas about his pioneering textual research on the Yogaśāstra of Patañjali and its commentarial tradition, the authorship and dating of the Yogasūtra and its commentary the Bhāṣya, the surviving... more
In this episode, we speak with Dr. Philipp Maas about his pioneering textual research on the Yogaśāstra of Patañjali and its commentarial tradition, the authorship and dating of the Yogasūtra and its commentary the Bhāṣya, the surviving Sanskrit manuscripts of the PYŚ, the relationship between Sāṅkhya and Yoga, the nature of Īśvara for Patañjali, Maas' critical edition on the PYŚ, and more.
Research Interests:
The Yoga of Reasoning: Soteriology & Spiritual Practice in the Nyāyabhāṣya was a talk given by Dr Philipp Maas, University of Leipzig at the Centre of Yoga Studies, SOAS University of London on 27th November 2018. Find out more at... more
The Yoga of Reasoning: Soteriology & Spiritual Practice in the Nyāyabhāṣya was a talk given by Dr Philipp Maas, University of Leipzig at the Centre of Yoga Studies, SOAS University of London on 27th November 2018. Find out more at www.soas.ac.uk/yoga-studies/even…the-nyyabhya.html. He is introduced by Dr James Mallinson, SOAS. Audience questions have been edited out.
What liberation is and how you achieve it is a central concern in much of Indian Philosophy but its conceptualisation and practices associated with it can vary hugely between traditions. As renowned yoga scholar Philipp Maas shows in this talk, however, the differences may not always be as great as they might at first appear.
He compares the system found in Patanjali's Yoga Sastra with that of Vatsayana's Nyaya, and demonstrated the surprising ways in which Vatsayana was influenced by the "8 limbed" practice of Patanjali, innovatively using it to develop a new approach. This talk will be of particular interest to scholars of yoga and the "six schools" of Indian Philosophy, as well as anyone who wants to learn more about liberation as represented in Indian textual traditions.
What liberation is and how you achieve it is a central concern in much of Indian Philosophy but its conceptualisation and practices associated with it can vary hugely between traditions. As renowned yoga scholar Philipp Maas shows in this talk, however, the differences may not always be as great as they might at first appear.
He compares the system found in Patanjali's Yoga Sastra with that of Vatsayana's Nyaya, and demonstrated the surprising ways in which Vatsayana was influenced by the "8 limbed" practice of Patanjali, innovatively using it to develop a new approach. This talk will be of particular interest to scholars of yoga and the "six schools" of Indian Philosophy, as well as anyone who wants to learn more about liberation as represented in Indian textual traditions.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Classical Sāṅkhya-Yoga is a premodern South Asian system of knowledge that in the early 5th c. CE appears fully developed in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (PYŚ). The aim of Sāṅkhya Yoga in its soteriological dimension is to end the wrong... more
Classical Sāṅkhya-Yoga is a premodern South Asian system of knowledge that in the early 5th c. CE appears fully developed in the Pātañjalayogaśāstra (PYŚ). The aim of Sāṅkhya Yoga in its soteriological dimension is to end the wrong identification of the self with its mental capacity once and for all, which amounts for the practising yogi to the final liberation from the cycle of rebirths and its innate suffering. The means to this end is the realization of the ontological difference between the self and matter in meditative absorption, which is called “knowledge of the difference.” Due to its strong soteriological orientation, classical Sāṅkhya-Yoga apparently does not leave much room for the perusal of life extending practices like rasāyana. Nevertheless, rasāyana practices are mentioned at two instances of the PYŚ, namely in PYŚ 3.51 in the context of the encounter of advanced yogis with heavenly being, and in PYŚ 4.1 with regard to superhuman abilities resulting from herbal substances. The presentation analyses these two text passages in their respective contexts by taking into consideration different interpretations of mediaeval yoga commentators. Moreover, it compares the attitudes towards rasāyana as reflected in the PYŚ with Upaniṣadic, epic, and early āyurvedic notions of life extending practices in order to arrive at a novel understanding of the complicates relationship between spiritual liberation and life extension as legitimate aims of human pursuits in premodern South Asia.
Research Interests:
"A leading expert on the founding text of Yoga tells us why, when, and by whom it was written, and what it has to do with modern day yoga practice."
Research Interests:
In this talk, I take a fresh look at the exposition of posture as an ancillary of yoga in Pātañjala Yogaśāstra 2.46-48. This passage contains the famous characterization of posture as sthirasukham that was understood in various ways by... more
In this talk, I take a fresh look at the exposition of posture as an ancillary of yoga in Pātañjala Yogaśāstra 2.46-48. This passage contains the famous characterization of posture as sthirasukham that was understood in various ways by the Sanskrit-commentators and by modern scholars and translators. By weighting these interpretations against each other and by drawing upon different textual versions of the passage under discussion as they are transmitted partly in unpublished manuscripts, I arrive at an improved understanding of Patañjali’s conceptions of what postures are, how they are achieved and which purposes they serve.
Research Interests:
Research Meeting of the Sushruta Project and the Classical Āyurveda Text Study Group, Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, July 9, 2022
Research Interests:
A presentation at the online conference “New Light on Yoga: Insights, Perspectives, and Methods,” University of Hamburg, University of Leipzig, Yoga Vidya e.V., 18 September 2021
Research Interests:
A presentation at the conference "Textual and Visual Sources on Buddhist Meditation: Fifty-Six Years after the first Publication of the 'Buddhist Yoga Manual'." University of Heidelberg, 7–8 February 2020.
Research Interests:
A presentation to the Workshop “The Nyāyabhāṣya: Its Critical Edition, Related Aspects of Digital Humanities, and its Place in the History of Nyāya Philosophy” at the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of... more
A presentation to the Workshop “The Nyāyabhāṣya: Its Critical Edition, Related Aspects of Digital Humanities, and its Place in the History of Nyāya Philosophy” at the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna on 31 July 2017
Research Interests:
A presentation at the workshop “Vision and Visuality in Buddhism and Beyond”, University of Zürich, November 25, 2016.
Research Interests:
A presentation at the AyurYog Workshop: Rejuvenation, longevity, immortality. Perspectives on rasāyana, kāyakalpa and bcud len practices, Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, on 21... more
A presentation at the AyurYog Workshop: Rejuvenation, longevity, immortality. Perspectives on rasāyana, kāyakalpa and bcud len practices, Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, on 21 October 2016
Research Interests: Religion, Hinduism, Indian Philosophy, History of Religion, Ayurvedic Medicine, and 12 moreYoga, Yoga Philosophy, Sanskrit language and literature, Ayurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), Alchemy, South Asia, Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Indian Culture, Ayurvedic medicinal plants, Religious Studies, and Modern Yoga Studies
A paper read in the thematic panel “The Carakasaṃhitā as a Mirror of South Asian Cultural History” at the 16th World Sanskrit Conference, Bangkok on 30 June 2015
Research Interests:
Research Interests: Indian Philosophy, History of Religion, History of Medicine, Ayurvedic Medicine, Sanskrit language and literature, and 10 moreAyurveda (Sanskrit language and literature), History Of Medicine In South Asia, Sanskrit, Ayurveda, Social History of Medicine, Brahmanism, Religious Studies, Vedic Studies, Indian Philosophy and Religion, and Classical Indian Philosophy
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
New Light on Yoga: Insights, Perspectives, and Methods. Conference announcement, list of speakers and academic program.