This study focuses on the devices implemented in Classical Indian texts on ritual and language in order to develop a structure of rules in an economic and systematic way. These devices presuppose a spatial approach to ritual and language, one which deals for instance with absences as substitutions within a pre-existing grid, and not as temporal disappearances. In this way, the study reveals a key feature of some among the most influential schools of Indian thought.
The sources are Kalpasutra, Vyakaräa and Mimäsa, three textual traditions which developed alongside each other, sharing - as the volume shows - common presuppositions and methodologies. The book will be of interest for Sanskritists, scholars of ritual exegesis and of the history of linguistics.

Auteur

Elisa Freschi is project-leader at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. After a degree in Sanskrit and one in Philosophy, she has gained her PhD on Indian Philosophy, with a thesis on the Epistemology of Sacred Texts (2006). She works on themes of epistemology, linguistics and philosophy of religion.
Tiziana Pontillo is Assistant Professor of Sanskrit at Cagliari University, Italy (since 2002). She gained her PhD with a thesis on Päi i's Zero-Morphology (2000) and has taught General Linguistics at Udine University (2001-2002). She is the author of more than 70 contributions, often included in the proceedings of international conferences.

Contenu

Contents: Scientific descriptive methods - Substitution patterns - Zero-theories - Extra-mathematical concept of placeholder - Conflict between different rules - Technical literatures in comparison: ritual and grammatical traditions - Space (vs. time) as conceptual background - tantra (simultaneous application) vs. prasäga (automatic involvement) - Automatic involvement and blocking of rules.