Ankur Barua [+–]

University of Cambridge

Ankur Barua is University Senior Lecturer in Hindu Studies in the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. He holds a PhD in theology and religious studies from the University of Cambridge. His published books include The Brahmo Samaj and its Vaiṣṇava Milieus: Intersections of Hindu Knowledge and Love in Nineteenth Century Bengal (2021) and The Vedāntic Relationality of Rabindranath Tagore: Harmonizing the One and its Many (2018).

This introductory text points to some of the diverse tapestries of Hindu worldviews where scriptural revelation, logical argumentation, embodied affectivity, moral reasoning, and aesthetic cultivation constitute densely interwoven conceptual threads. It begins with an exploration of some classical iterations of the quest for a fundamental ontology amidst the diversities of the everyday world. This quest is often embedded in both a diagnosis of the human condition as structured by suffering and a therapy for recovery from worldly fragmentation. A crucial aspect of this therapeutic structure is the analysis of the means of knowledge and the categories of reality, since in order to know the nature of the world one must proceed along truth-tracking routes. Such dynamic mind-world encounters are mediated through language, and Hindu philosophical texts extensively discuss the motif of whether or not deep reality can be comprehended through linguistic structures. These philosophical exercises also shape reflections on themes such as aesthetics, social organization, the meaning of life, and so on. As Hinduism increasingly migrates to western locations through practices of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness, and along with sensibilities relating to vegetarianism, ecology, and pacifism, we encounter multiple translations of these classical motifs relating to the self, language, and consciousness.

Series: Global Philosophy

Prelims

Preface ix-x

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Series Foreword xi

Mohammed Rustom

Carleton University

Mohammed Rustom is Professor of Islamic Thought and Global Philosophy at Carleton University and Director of the Carleton Centre for the Study of Islam. An award-winning author whose works have been translated into over ten languages, his most recent book is entitled Inrushes of the Heart: The Sufi Philosophy of ʿAyn al-Quḍāt (SUNY Press, 2023).

Introduction

Conceptual Constellations [+–] 1-20

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

An inquiry into Hindu philosophy is also an inquiry into what “philosophy” means. Often Hindu worldviews are dismissed as multiple varieties of irrational mysticism, on the assumption that systematic forms of reasoning are absent in them. In truth, these worldviews are shaped by complex interplays of reason, revelation, experience, and tradition. Hindu philosophers defended their distinctive standpoints partly by generating fine-tuned definitions of concepts such as perception, causation, and reality. These definitional exercises are often shaped by forms of analogical reasoning that are based on everyday objects. Some of the central traditions of Hindu philosophy are Sāṃkhya, Yoga, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Mīmāṃsā, and Vedānta. They should be viewed not as fixed “schools” but as clusters of ideas and practices. Their defenders extensively debated topics related to what truly exists (“ontology”), the means of knowing what there is in the world (“epistemology”), and the pathway towards human flourishing in a world suffused with suffering.

Chapter 1

Unity and its Concrete Multitudes [+–] 21-46

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

We begin our ontological explorations with the Nyāya and the Vaiśeṣika systems. According to them, not only an everyday object such as a cup but also the absence of this cup is a kind of “thing”. We work our way towards Advaita Vedānta, as systematised by Śaṃkara. According to Advaita, empirical distinctions are, in the ultimate analysis, misconceptions associated with our state of worldly ignorance. The unitary source, foundation, and telos of everything in the world is not an empirical object. In contrast, Vaiśeṣika has a down-to-earth feel: the world with its manifold differences is robustly real. Moreover, it is meaningful to say that medium-sized objects in our environment have mind-independent existence.

Chapter 2

Knowing the Roots of Reality [+–] 47-71

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Nyāya philosophers give us a world structured with certain objective features, and human cognisers begin to know these features through various forms of fallible generalization. If a certain generalization is doubted, it has to be examined through reflective inquiry. There is a structural correlation between knowledge sources (pramāṇa) and objects of knowledge (prameya). Nyāya philosophers outlined various forms of pseudo-reasons which indicate ways in which the compass point of reasoning, instead of being turned towards reality, has deviated from reality. A topic of lively debate relates to whether or not the knowledge sources of perception and inference are sufficiently robust to take us from the finite world to the divine source. Across these philosophical milieus, the proper understanding of the nature of the human self and the divine self and their interrelation is key to human flourishing within the world, and spiritual fulfilment across multiple forms of worldly existence.

Chapter 3

Therapies for Liberation [+–] 73-97

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

While many styles of Hindu philosophy affirm, on the basis of Vedic revelation, the existence of a cosmic source of being, goodness, and value, forms of sceptical questioning can also be found across different discursive Indic milieus. According to one form, reasoning cannot extend beyond what is immediately perceptible in the spatiotemporal world, let alone beyond the empirical bounds of sense. Another, more mitigated form works within the parameters of Vedic visions and points to certain inconsistencies between everyday experiences and the concept of a deity. For the Vedāntic traditions, a deep-seated error (avidyā) is the failure to discern the spiritual self (ātman) that is the stable rock of being in the finite world. Conversely, liberating knowledge (vidyā) re-centres us in the heart of reality and draws us away from our immersion in the cycles of impermanence, ignorance, and suffering.

Chapter 4

Finding a Home in the World [+–] 99-124

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Across the multiple forms of Vedāntic philosophy, worldviews are developed through interplays between logical reasoning and scriptural exegesis. Perhaps when some scriptural texts declare the divine to be qualityless, this is a denial not of every attribute but only of human imperfections such as suffering, ignorance, and the like. Therefore, the divine should be seen as the abode of every supereminently perfect quality such as omnipotence and omniscience. Or perhaps such declarations should be read as the final word and they sublate all depictions of the divine as having a specific form or quality. Such motifs constitute the focal point of many of the rational disputes between Advaita and the theistic forms of Vedānta. In addition to these interpretive tussles, there is the conceptual challenge of articulating the relation between the finite world which is temporal and the non-finite centre which is eternal.

Chapter 5

Multiple Modes of Morality [+–] 125-149

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

A leitmotif running through roughly two millennia of Hindu philosophy is that an integral dimension of human flourishing is the cultivation of the discipline of seeing oneself as another. The fundamental concept is dharma, which is a polyvalent term encompassing connotations such as order, basis, stability, essential nature, duty, and proper way of living. If fire naturally rises upwards and unsupported stones naturally fall downwards, such movements are encoded in their dharma, and if human beings should cultivate self-control, truthfulness, benevolence, and altruism, such self-cultivation is a constitutive element of their dharma in the world. Across the multiple tapestries of Hindu cosmologies, the exhortations to enact a world-structuring dharma exist in a somewhat uneasy tension with the quest of a world-transcending overcoming of finitude. The milieus of dharma, which give structure to worldly living, are immersed in impermanence while the spiritual self (ātman) is the unshakeable citadel of bliss.

Conclusion

Reorienting the Mind’s Compass [+–] 151-163

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

We highlight three interrelated motifs across the milieus of Hindu philosophy: 1. the relation between descriptive accounts and revisionary accounts of what exists, 2. the role of cognition in revealing or constructing the world, and 3. the relation between philosophy and emancipation. Questions such as “What is the good life?” and “How do I find happiness?” are embedded in constellations of questions such as, “Why am I here in the first place?”, “What is it that I know about the world I inhabit?”, and “How reliable is reason as a tool of human inquiry?” If philosophy begins with wonder, then it ends with the removal of suffering – this is what many Hindu philosophers seem to be claiming. And in pursuit of that claim, they move towards various types of philosophical landscapes filled with numerous questions.

End Matter

Glossary 165

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Notes 167-172

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Bibliography 173-178

Ankur Barua

University of Cambridge

Reviews

This book is a thought-provoking, wide-ranging, and stimulating introduction to Hindu philosophy. Barua does an admirable job of lucidly explaining complex ideas without oversimplifying them.
Swami Medhananda (Ayon Maharaj), Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy, Ramakrishna Institute of Moral and Spiritual Education, India

With humour and precision, Ankur Barua’s Exploring Hindu Philosophy offers the reader a delightful, accessible, and yet deeply insightful guide to the multiplicity of “structured visions” that interweave and intersect into Hindu philosophy. Highly recommended for audiences at every level.
Jonardon Ganeri, Bimal K. Matilal Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto

The strength of the book lies with Barua’s deftness of philosophical analysis. He moves seamlessly between and across various philosophical concerns, representing accurately, clearly, and without oversimplification the subtly different positions of a host of schools as they address a range of related concerns such as the nature of language, the functioning of perception, the proper order of logic and inferential reasoning, the nature of objective reality, and questions of ethics and morality. That Hindu philosophers set these matters in relation to soteriological concerns is properly explained and justified, illustrating that subtle philosophical argument can emerge even in the context of thinking done by philosophers who simultaneously hold deep theological commitments.
...those who take this book to the classroom are likely to find that Barua’s thoughtful engagement with Hindu philosophical ideas will enrich, deepen, and enliven their discussion – and both their students’ and their own appreciation – of Hindu philosophy.
John Nemec, Professor of Religious Studies, University of Virginia, Bulletin of SOAS

It is fluently written, it brings into easy and close conversation a vast number of ideas, and it interweaves a distinctive personal voice with traditional description. For a general reader, it could well be something to spark further exploration of these great traditions of thought and life. For the student, it could well serve as the spark of inspiration before regular lectures begin. If a teacher were to systematically tie its various sinuous strands to more detailed readings, it would function as a rather intuitive basic course-book. Finally, in deliberately treating these ideas as having their own intrinsic—indeed ahistorical—conceptual sensibilities, Barua is making the case that Indian philosophy as philosophy in the contemporary Western sense is just as valid an undertaking as one in which historical specificity is vital. These are not trade-offs but alternative paths taken according to temperament. And this book should suit well the temperament of the contemporary philosophy-student who is aware of the need to go beyond the Western canon while yet wanting to engage with questions that are of cross-cultural relevance.
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy, Lancaster University, Religions of South Asia