Hindu Theology: Session Five - The ≈öaiva commentarial tradition 2

Continuing the ≈öaiva theme we will contrast the SaiddhƒÅntika theology with the non-SaiddhƒÅntika understanding of revelation through focussing firstly on Abhinavagupta’s commentary on the root text of his tradition, the MƒÅlinƒ´vijayottara-tantra. We will read the MƒÅlinƒ´≈õlokavƒÅrttika I, 1.
Reading:
Hanneder, Jurgen. Abhinavagupta’s Philosophy of Revelation (Forsten 1998).

This series of seminars examines the idea and possibility of Hindu theology. It would survey the history and constructive theological thinking in Hindu traditions. For some scholars both terms ‘Hindu’ and ‘theology’ are impositions upon South Asia of western categories while for others we can speak about ‘Hindu theology’ in a coherent way. While the course would certainly wish to problematise the category, the main focus would be textual and hermeneutical. If a discipline is defined by its object and/or its method then we might say that theology is a discipline whose object is not a theos but rather ‘revelation.’ Such a definition does not necessarily entail intellectual commitments to theism or the truth of ‘revelation’ but rather roots the discipline in a textual history which develops different kinds of reasoning. Hindu theology would therefore focus on the interpretative and commentarial traditions in the history of Hinduism and encourage critical reasoning about them. In practical terms this would mean that the course would concentrate on classical and medieval periods, particularly the ≈öaiva and Vai·π£·πáava theological traditions that have come down to us in Sanskrit commentaries and independent works. It is hoped that the seminars will provoke theological and philosophical reflections on the meaning of the text studied. The seminar series raises questions about the nature of theology, the nature of reasoning, and the task of theological reading in the contemporary context.