Indian semantic analysis : the nirvacana tradition
The Indian tradition of semantic elucidation known as nirvacana analysis represented a powerful hermeneutic tool in the exegesis and transmission of authoritative scripture. Nevertheless, it has all too frequently been dismissed by modern scholars as anything from folk-etymology to a primitive forerunner of historical linguistics. Eivind Kahrs argues that such views fall short of explaining both its acceptance within the sophisticated grammatical tradition of vyakarana and its effective usage in the processing of Sanskrit texts. He establishes his argument by investigating the learned Sanskrit literature of Saiva Kashmir, and explains the nirvacana tradition in the light of a model of substitution, used at least since the time of the Upanisads and later refined in the technical literatures of grammar and ritual
Print Book, English, 1998
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K., 1998
University of Cambridge oriental publications, no. 55, 55
xv, 302 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780521631884, 0521631882
38144371
1. An outline of strategies
2. Nirvacanasastra
3. Praxis: Saiva Kashmir
4. The universe of Yaska
5. Substitution
6. Epilogue