زبان‌شناسی و نقد: راهنمای نقد متنی مهاتما (مطالعات فرهنگی، تاریخی و متنی ادیان جنوب آسیا، ۱۱۸۴)

Philology and Criticism contrasts the Mahābhārata's preservation and transmission within the Indian scribal and commentarial traditions with Sanskrit philology after 1900, as German Indologists proposed a critical edition of the Mahābhārata to validate their racial and nationalist views. Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee show how, in contrast to the Indologists' unscientific theories, V.S. Sukthankar assimilated the principles of neo-Lachmannian textual criticism to defend the transmitted text and its traditional reception as a work of law, philosophy and salvation. The authors demonstrate why, after the edition's completion, no justification exists for claiming that an earlier heroic epic existed, that the Brahmans redacted the heroic epic to produce the Mahābhārata or that they interpolated?sectarian? gods such as Vis.n.u and Śiva into the work. By demonstrating how the Indologists committed technical errors, cited flawed and biased scholarship and used circular argumentation to validate their racist and anti-Semitic theories, Philology and Criticism frees readers to approach the Mahābhārata as?the principal monument of bhakti? (Madeleine Biardeau). The authoritative guide to the critical edition's correct use and interpretation, Philology and Criticism urges South Asianists to view Hinduism as a complex debate about ontology and ethics rather than through the lenses of?Brahmanism? and?sectarianism.? It launches a new world philology--one that is plural and self-reflexive rather than Eurocentric and ahistorical.;Introducing the normative redaction hypothesis -- Textual criticism and stemmatics -- Normative redaction, archetype, and original -- The argument from spread and the argument from resilience -- The argument from "empty reference" -- The argument from loss -- Introducing the oral bardic epic hypothesis -- Contamination : hyperarchetypal and extra-stemmatic -- Lachmann's 1817 review as a prototype for identifying the source of contamination -- The argument from uncertainty -- The argument from oral source -- The argument from (postulated) antiquity and the argument from ideology -- Classification : typological and genealogical -- Determining filiation -- Eliminating witnesses -- The argument from brevity and the argument from false premises -- The argument from a misapprehension concerning classification (Schriftartprämisse) -- The argument from extensive contamination -- The argument from independent recensions -- Reconsidering the claims of critical scholarship. Philology and Criticism contrasts the Mahābhārata's preservation and transmission within the Indian scribal and commentarial traditions with Sanskrit philology after 1900, as German Indologists proposed a critical edition of the Mahābhārata to validate their racial and nationalist views. Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee show how, in contrast to the Indologists' unscientific theories, V. S. Sukthankar assimilated the principles of neo-Lachmannian textual criticism to defend the transmitted text and its traditional reception as a work of law, philosophy and salvation. The authors demonstrate why, after the edition's completion, no justification exists for claiming that an earlier heroic epic existed, that the Brahmans redacted the heroic epic to produce the Mahābhārata or that they interpolated "sectarian" gods such as Vis.n.u and Śiva into the work. By demonstrating how the Indologists committed technical errors, cited flawed and biased scholarship and used circular argumentation to validate their racist and anti-Semitic theories, Philology and Criticism frees readers to approach the Mahābhārata as "the principal monument of bhakti" (Madeleine Biardeau). The authoritative guide to the critical edition's correct use and interpretation, Philology and Criticism urges South Asianists to view Hinduism as a complex debate about ontology and ethics rather than through the lenses of "Brahmanism" and "sectarianism." It launches a new world philology—one that is plural and self-reflexive rather than Eurocentric and ahistorical. | The Critical Edition of the Mahābhārata, completed between 1933 and 1966, represents a landmark in the textual history of an epic with a nearly 1500-year history. Not only is the epic massive (70,000 verses in the constituted text, with approximately another 24,000 in the Vulgate) verses, but in its various recensions, versions, retellings, and translations it also presents a unique view of the history of texts, narratives, ideas, and their relation to a culture. Yet in spite of the fact that this text has been widely adopted as the standard Mahābhārata text by scholars, there is as yet no work that clarifies the details of the process by which this text was established. Scholars seeking clarification on the manuscripts used or the principles followed in arriving at the Critical Text must either rely on informal scattered hints found throughout academic literature or read the volumes themselves and attempt to follow what the editor did and why he did so at each stage. This book is the first work that presents a comprehensive review of the Critical Edition, with overviews of the stemmata (textual trees) drawn up, how the logic of the stemmata determined editorial choices, and an in-depth analysis of strengths and drawbacks of the Critical Edition. Not only is this work an invaluable asset to any scholar working on the Mahābhārata today using the Critical Edition, but the publication of an English translation of the Critical Edition by Chicago University Press also makes this book an urgent desideratum. Furthermore, this volume provides an overview of both historical and contemporary views on the Critical Edition and clarifies strengths and weaknesses in the arguments for and against the text. This book simultaneously surveys the history of Western interpretive approaches to the Indian epic and evaluates them in terms of their cogency and tenability using the tools of textual criticism. It thus subjects many prejudices of nineteenth-century scholarship (e.g., the thesis of a heroic Indo-European epic culture) to a penetrating critique. Intended as a companion volume to our book The Nay Science: A History of German Indology (Oxford... "In the early twentieth century, one of the largest attempts at producing a critical edition of any text in any language got underway in India. Headed by V.S. Sukthankar, editors at the Bhandarkar Institute proposed producing a critical edition of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, a text that in its vulgate or popular edition spans nearly one hundred thousand verses. This book is the story of what this critical edition tells us about the science of textual criticism, and how that science was used (and sometimes abused). Against the critics of the project, this book undertakes a defense of the critical edition. It demonstrates that the edition, far from dismissing the various regional versions, undertakes to preserve a pan-Indic Mahābhārata tradition. The critical edition's gesture is essentially conservative, and inclusive. Rather than discard additional passages, it preserves them in an appendix. Rather than give precedence to the critics' theories of a heroic original Âryan epic riddled with Brahmanic "corruptions, " it bases itself on the manuscript evidence to show that there was never any other epic but this: the Mahābhārata with its eighteen-parvan architecture, a work of philosophy, law, cosmology, and didactics. By exposing and critiquing many misconceptions regarding the Mahābhārata critical edition (above all, those of Andreas Bigger and Reinhold Grunendahl), this book aims to provide readers not only with a guide to this edition but also with an assessment of its true place in intellectual history. Extensive appendices, detailed drawings of stemmata, and discussions of the basic principles at work in different contexts make this book an essential resource for the student of the Mahābhārata as well as of textual and literary criticism"--Résumé de l'éditeur "In the early twentieth century, one of the largest attempts at producing a critical edition of any text in any language got underway in India. Headed by V.S. Sukthankar, editors at the Bhandarkar Institute proposed producing a critical edition of the Sanskrit Mahābhārata, a text that in its vulgate or popular edition spans nearly one hundred thousand verses. This book is the story of what this critical edition tells us about the science of textual criticism, and how that science was used (and sometimes abused). Against the critics of the project, this book undertakes a defense of the critical edition. It demonstrates that the edition, far from dismissing the various regional versions, undertakes to preserve a pan-Indic Mahābhārata tradition. The critical edition's gesture is essentially conservative, and inclusive. Rather than discard additional passages, it preserves them in an appendix. Rather than give precedence to the critics' theories of a heroic original Âryan epic riddled with Brahmanic "corruptions," it bases itself on the manuscript evidence to show that there was never any other epic but this: the Mahābhārata with its eighteen-parvan architecture, a work of philosophy, law, cosmology, and didactics. By exposing and critiquing many misconceptions regarding the Mahābhārata critical edition (above all, those of Andreas Bigger and Reinhold Grunendahl), this book aims to provide readers not only with a guide to this edition but also with an assessment of its true place in intellectual history. Extensive appendices, detailed drawings of stemmata, and discussions of the basic principles at work in different contexts make this book an essential resource for the student of the Mahābhārata as well as of textual and literary criticism"-- Provided by publisher Philology and Criticism contrasts the MahÄ#x81;bhÄ#x81;rataâ#x80;#x99;s preservation and transmission within the Indian scribal and commentarial traditions with Sanskrit philology after 1900, as German Indologists proposed a critical edition of the MahÄ#x81;bhÄ#x81;rata to validate their racial and nationalist views. Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee show how, in contrast to the Indologistsâ#x80;#x99; unscientific theories, V. S. Sukthankar assimilated the principles of neo-Lachmannian textual criticism to defend the transmitted text and its traditional reception as a work of law, philosophy and salvation. The authors demonstrate why, after the editionâ#x80;#x99;s completion, no justification exists for claiming that an earlier heroic epic existed, that the Brahmans redacted the heroic epic to produce the MahÄ#x81;bhÄ#x81;rata or that they interpolated â#x80;sectarianâ#x80;#x9D; gods such as Vis.n.u and Å#x9A;iva into the work. By demonstrating how the Indologists committed technical errors, cited flawed and biased scholarship and used circular argumentation to validate their racist and anti-Semitic theories, Philology and Criticism frees readers to approach the MahÄ#x81;bhÄ#x81;rata as â#x80;the principal monument of bhaktiâ#x80;#x9D; (Madeleine Biardeau). The authoritative guide to the critical editionâ#x80;#x99;s correct use and interpretation, Philology and Criticism urges South Asianists to view Hinduism as a complex debate about ontology and ethics rather than through the lenses of â#x80;Brahmanismâ#x80;#x9D; and â#x80;sectarianism.â#x80;#x9D; It launches a new world philologyâ#x80;#x94;one that is plural and self-reflexive rather than Eurocentric and ahistorical

Philology and Criticism contrasts the Mahābhārata’s preservation and transmission within the Indian scribal and commentarial traditions with Sanskrit philology after 1900, as German Indologists proposed a critical edition of the Mahābhārata to validate their racial and nationalist views. Vishwa Adluri and Joydeep Bagchee show how, in contrast to the Indologists’ unscientific theories, V. S. Sukthankar assimilated the principles of neo-Lachmannian textual criticism to defend the transmitted text and its traditional reception as a work of law, philosophy and salvation. The authors demonstrate why, after the edition’s completion, no justification exists for claiming that an earlier heroic epic existed, that the Brahmans redacted the heroic epic to produce the Mahābhārata or that they interpolated “sectarian” gods such as Vis.n.u and Śiva into the work. By demonstrating how the Indologists committed technical errors, cited flawed and biased scholarship and used circular argumentation to validate their racist and anti-Semitic theories, Philology and Criticism frees readers to approach the Mahābhārata as “the principal monument of bhakti” (Madeleine Biardeau). The authoritative guide to the critical edition’s correct use and interpretation, Philology and Criticism urges South Asianists to view Hinduism as a complex debate about ontology and ethics rather than through the lenses of “Brahmanism” and “sectarianism.” It launches a new world philology—one that is plural and self-reflexive rather than Eurocentric and ahistorical.

The first book to present a comprehensive review of the Mahābhārata Critical Edition, with overviews of stemmata (textual trees), how the logic of the stemmata determined editorial choices, and an in-depth analysis of the edition's strengths and drawbacks. An invaluable asset to any scholar working contemplating serious work on the Mahābhārata