Professional Documents
Culture Documents
DOI 10.1007/s10781-013-9213-4
In principle, I like the Felicitation Volumes, particularly for the personal involment they presuppose and
also for the connected gentle pushing they exercise on the lazy contributors (like me). However, a major
shortcoming is to be found in their irregular circulation, which makes the reach of the scholarly world
somewhat problematic. The aim of the present paper is to present to a wider audience a synopsis of the
main contents of the five articles that I have devoted to the edition and translation of the only extant
fragment of this important text, which have come out precisely in recent Felicitation Volumes.
R. Torella (&)
Istituto Italiano di Studi Orientali, Sapienza Universita` di Roma, via Principe Amedeo 182b,
00185 Rome, Italy
e-mail: raffaele.torella@fastwebnet.it
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The Vivti is sometimes mentioned as Aashasr, that is, corresponding to 8,000 lokas; according to
another tradition referred to in Pandey (1963, p. 163), the extent would be 6,000 lokas.
2
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These articles have started a hunt for more fragments from the Vivti, which has already produced
interesting results (see Kawajiri, forthcoming; Ratie, forthcoming).
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R. Torella
The Buddhists5 account for the establishment of the absence of a jar in a certain
place by saying that the cognition of the empty place, while being aware of itself as
opposed to the cognition of the place with a jar, is also aware of the place as devoid
of the jar. In fact, if a jar were on that place, then also the jar would be manifested
within the cognition of the place, since both the jar and the place share the same
capacity [of being perceived]. This can be maintained, they go on, because
particulars belonging to the same class (that is, visible particulars) are grasped by
one and the same cognition (here a visual cognition), and consequently the
cognition of the place should, in the case of a jar being there, have also contained
the manifestation of the jar; but in the case at issue it was not so.6 Utpaladeva points
out that here we are dealing with two distinct and separate cognitions, bound to
remain such7: by any means cannot one include or exclude the other, unless one
intends to explain the establishment of the absence in terms of inference,8 which is
not the case with Buddhists (see Torella 2002, p. 143, fn. 17). These and other
arguments are taken into account in the Vivti. In sum: Each cognition sheds light on
itself alone, or, in other words, each cognition has its own self-awareness, which can
by no means act as the common basis where two distinct cognitions may meet. No
single cognition, Utpaladeva concludes, not even the perceptual cognition, can
establish the absence of something by itself alone.9 The only way to fill the
gap between cognitions and, by doing so, to give a reasonable explanation of
the establishment of absences, which is so common in everyday life, is to accept
their resting on a single consciousness.10 Instead of a multiplicity of irrelate
svasavedanas each corresponding to a single cognition, Utpaladeva posits the one
supreme consciousness principle as the common svasavedana of all cognitions,
which in this way derive from it the capacity of entering into relation with each
other.
The starting point for the discussion of the exclusion (apoha) issuethe third
of Sivas powersis clearly stated in Abhinavaguptas IPVV: why on the appearing
10
Vivti tad evam ekntarmukhasvasavedanarpacittattvtmatvirnti vin [] (Torella 2007a,
p. 480.5); tasmd em ekacittattvavirntirpam anusandhnam avaybhyupagantavyam (Torella
2007a, p. 480.6).
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of a certain particular object should one figure out something different destined later
to be excluded?11 Abhinavagupta is not satisfied with Dharmakrtis answer,
elaborated at length in the Svarthanumanapariccheda and svavtti: the correct
knowledge of the svalakaa is continually menaced by erroneous superimpositions
(samropa), caused e.g. by misleading similaritiessuch as the brightness equally
found in mother-of-pearl and in silverwhich makes the knower mistake the
former for the latter. The doubt, which projects alternative forms to be negated,
would arise precisely because the knower is aware that many superimpositions are
in principle possible; so a definite ascertainment becomes possible only after
hypothetical mistaken forms are preliminarily rejected. Then Abhinavagupta takes
into account the position of Sankaranandana (292.18ff), who in the Apohasiddhi
recognizes prasaga (anyathprasaga the mere possibility that a thing be
different from itself ?) as the cause of doubt. Both samropa and prasaga are for
Abhinavagupta equally untenable, since, whether they derive from a beginningless
nescience or other causes, they ultimately lead to a regressus ad innitum. In the
Vivti (Torella 2007a, p. 480.1121), Utpaladeva puts forward his own version of
how apoha works, taking for granted that apoha is indeed the pivot of all conceptual
thought. His view, evidently nourished with Buddhist ideas, is centred on the
plurality of causal efficiencies found in any object,12 which he substitutes for the
plurality of wrong assumptions (vikalpa, samropa), with respect to which
Abhinava will clearly explicitate the fault of anavasth, already implicit in
Utpalas argument. But, more importantly, the Vivti makes an additional remark.
On the maya plane, in which alone vikalpa is at work, the objects should be at their
highest level of differentiation: then, how can their cognition evoke other objects,
too?13 Utpaladevas answer is rooted in the Saiva theology. The vara-tattva level,
at which all the manifested world is still enclosed in the I (sarvam idam aham),
remains so to speak in the background even in the maya world, marked by a fullfledged differentiation. This is especially true for the cognition process, in which
even the fully differentiated object ends up flowing into consciousness and being
absorbed into it; moreover, as is often repeated, if the object were not essentially
light, it could not shine at all in knowledge. This latent basic undifferentiation of the
object (from other objects and from the self) is, according to Utpaladeva, what
finally renders the process of apoha possible, the potential openness of the object
(and the subject) being the very ground for the doubt about it.14 On this premise
alone, the Buddhist apoha is accepted by the Saivas, who take it as a particular akti
of the Lord, figuring side by side with jnaakti.
If Utpaladevas close investigation of the three powers starts with memory, by
infringing the above stated order, it is [b]ecause in a very clear manner memory can
11
IPVV I, p. 292.9 nanu svalakae vabhte kuto tadrpam akyate yad apohyate.
13
Vivti padrthntarasamparkarahite py arthe pratiniyatapraktv avabhte vividhrthakriykriy
api (Torella 2007a, p. 480.1718).
14
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R. Torella
serve as a logical reason for the establishment of the identity of the self with the Lord.15
The starting point of the examination of memory is the classical definition of memory
given in Yogastra I.11: Memory is the non-extinction of the object formerly perceived
(anubhtaviaysampramoa smti). The sustained analysis of Utpaladevas Vivti16
singles out a few crucial points contained in such an apparently simple process: How is it
possible to attribute temporal differentiation to a cognizer that is permanent in his
essential nature? What is the relationship between the cognitive act of the original
perception and the cognitive act of the subsequent memory? How can the latter bring the
former to light again without objectifying it? On this point, in fact, the Saiva and his
principal opponent, the Buddhist epistemologist, are in full agreement: a cognition is
self-luminous and cannot be the object of another cognition. The prima facie Buddhist
explanation which is the target of Utpaladevas criticism is far from being satisfactory:
saying that the perception produces a saskra, which in turn will produce the
phenomenon of memory, only accounts for the fact that the subsequent memory has a
certain objective content allegedly similar to that of the original perception, though
strictly speaking, since memory has no direct access to the former perception (cannot
know it), this very similarity cannot even be established.17 Furthermore, this view
leaves out the subjective component represented by the fact that the object has been
coloured by the previous perception, or, to be more precise, by its having been
already perceived in a certain past moment.18 Memory, in fact, is indeed the memory
of the past object, but also of the past perception of it. Instead, as Abhinavagupta says,
what the saskra is able to convey (or resurrect) is neither the original perception nor
the object insofar as it was cognized by such past perception.19 This presupposes a living
organism at work, a dynamic and unitary consciousness able to freely move between
different moments of time. It is the I that ensures the possibility of unifying the various
cognitions occurring at different times, thus resolving the apparent inconsistency
15
Vivti smter eva tvat suspaam vartmasiddhihetutay prathama sambhavam ha (Torella
2007b, p. 544.34).
16
Text in Torella (2007b, pp. 544549.2; 2007c, pp. 479482.4). The examination of memory runs from
IPK I.2.3 to III.4.8. On memory in the IPV, see Ratie (2006).
17
IPK I.3.2cd [] saskrajatve tu tattulyatva na tadgati (cf. Torella 2002, pp. 99100).
18
This position might be attributed to a nirkravdin, but for sure not to a skravdin, like Dignaga or
Dharmakrti. Dignaga uses the argument of memory, seen as necessarily including the awareness of the
temporal distance of the object previously perceived and the awareness of the previous perception of the
object, as a proof of the twofold nature of cognition and of its being self-aware (svavtti on
Pramasamuccaya I.11ab viayajnatajjnaviet tu dvirpat: p. 4.24 na cottarottari jnni
prvaviprakaviaybhsni syu, p. 5.23 yasmc cnubhavottarakla viaya iva jne pi smtir
utpadyate, tasmd asti dvirpat jnasya svasavedyat ca). For a thorough analysis of the crucial
passages on these topics in Pramasamuccaya I and svavtti, see recently Kellner (2011). Such
stratification of previous perceptions that is found in a memory act could not be satisfactorily explained
by those who, like the nirkravdins, deny cognition the characters of dvairpya and svasavedana; in
the same vein, Kumarila (lokavrttika, sunyavada 112cd114ab) does not conceive of an accumulation
of forms [in cognition], but only of a difference in objects (cf. Hattori 1968, p. 109).
19
IPV I p. 97.58 saskrt para saviyatmtra smter siddham, na tu anubhavaviayatvam, npi
asya viayasya prvnubhavaviayktatvam.
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between a (present) vimara and a (past) anubhava.20 The one and same svasavedana
of both cognitions creates that necessary bridge between them which the Buddhist
epistemologist fails to account for.21
Then Utpaladeva gives voice to a hypothetical opponent who finds the
explanation proposed by the Pratyabhijna too awkward and distant from common
sense: it would be much simpler to speak of a cognition (present memory) that
cognizes another cognition (the past perception). However, the Pratyabhijna
cannot accept such an interpretation, nor can the Buddhists, unless they question one
of the keystones of their respective philosophies: cognitions can never become the
object of other cognitions as they are only cognizable through introspective selfawareness (svasavedana).22 The opponent, not expressly named but certainly
representing the realistic brahmanical schools, replies that it is common knowledge
that at least one case of objectification of cognitions does exist, namely, the case of
the yogin who penetrates the thought of others, that is, the cognitive and emotional
content of their minds.23 In order to find an answer to this objection, Utpaladeva
feels as a primary task to define as accurately as possible the expression svasavit
self-awareness (on the part of all cognitions) through singling out three levels of
meaning (Abhinavagupta even adds a fourth one of his own). In the main, he is in
full agreement with Dharmakrti, who had taken svasavedana (or tmasavedana)
as one of the four varieties of perception.24 Any cognition, says Utpaladeva, has as
its essential nature self-awareness (svavit), which can be taken in three different,
Vivti smtikriypy asyaivaiaivntasthitnubhtaprvrthavimarecchopakram bahi sa iti
tatprvakloparaktnubhtabhvvamaranvasn (Torella 2007b, p. 545.911). Cf. Torella (2002,
pp. 106107, fn. 12).
21
IPVV II, p. 17.2223 anubhavasmtyor eka svasavedanarpam ekaviayatopalambht. What
Utpaladeva and Abhinavagupta implicitly say is that not even the Buddhist skravdins view of
cognition as twofold and self-aware, however acceptable in itself, is able to satisfactorily account for the
phenomenon of memory, since it is not well supported by the whole of the Buddhist philosophical
framework. If we cling to this, saying that the former anubhava shines in the present memory only
amounts to saying that the self-contained memory cognition knows the self-contained anubhava
cognition, which goes against the basic principle of svasavedyat of all cognitions. Even admitting that
a purely intellectual cognition (citta) may be the object of another (or anothers) cognition, the emotional
resonances of such cognition (caitta) are bound to remain strictly confined in the subjective sphere (cf.
Moriyama 2010, p. 271), hence the need for establishing the svasavedyat principle for all cognitions
(in fact, also the various feelings and emotions are viewed as cognitions: Pramavrttika III.448cd
sukhadukhbhildibhed buddhaya eva t).
22
IPVV II, p. 43.1213 saugatn tvat svasavedanam eva jnasya vapu, tad eva katha vedyat.
Though basically agreeing with Kellners objection to translating svasavedana by introspection
(Kellner 2011, p. 215), I think that it would not be out of place to underline the special kind of cognition
that after all svasavedana isit is vivid as only pratyaka can be, but it does not depend on sensory
faculties; it cognizes something without making it into an object; the phrases svasavedanasiddha,
svasavedya, etc. often convey the meaning of something whose presence and certainty are inwardly
felt and are not in need to be proved by pramas.
20
23
Nyyabindu I.7 tat [pratyaka] caturvidham; I.10 sarvacittacaittnm tmasavedanam the selfawareness of the mind and the mental events in their entirety; cf. also Pramavinicaya I, p. 20.9. Also
Dignaga had apparently listed svasavitti as a variety of pratyaka in Pramasamuccaya I.6c mnasa
crthargdisvasavittir akalpik, a definition however not exempt from problematic aspects (cf. Hattori
1968, pp. 27, 9294; Franco 1993; Yao 2004). To the concept(s) of svasavedana a special issue of the
Journal of Indian Philosophy has recently been devoted, with several important contributions.
24
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R. Torella
and complementary, senses: svasyaiva savit, svaiva savit, svasya savit eva ca
(Abhinavagupta adds: sv savit eva).25 None of them would stand, if the
objectifiability of cognition were accepted. Once we have ascertained that this is
indeed the distinctive mark of any cognition, it remains to be seen whether this may
be a feature of yogic perception, too. Even if we were hypothetically willing to
admitsays Utpaladeva with his usual tersenessthat a cognition might become
the object of another cognition, things would hardly change. In fact, the relationship
of the subject and object of cognition (viaya-viayin), which would thus obtain,
should, in the case at issue, necessarily pass through the achievement of
identification between the two cognitions and their respective subjects, since all
cognitions and subjects share the same essential nature. However, if a valid
cognitive process is based on the attainment of conformity (srpya) between the
apprehended object (grhya) part and the apprehending subject (or cognition)
(grhaka) part, such a conformity is incompatible with the essentially unity of the
two cognitions.26 Utpaladevas discourse is based on the full acceptation of the
epistemological scheme provided by Dignaga: the twofold aspect of cognition (see
above). The apprehending cognition part assumes the form of the apprehended
object part; the cognitive process consists precisely in the conformity or likeness
(srpya) between the two (svasavedana being a property of both of them). It is an
undeniable fact, concludes Utpaladeva, that the yogin can have access to other
minds, but this takes place insofar as he has attained identification with the supreme
self, and, consequently, has overcome the distinction among the various limited
subjects. On this plane, the cognitions of the others end up being ones own
cognitions, and, as such, are known through self-awareness.27
At the end of this argument, tmavda is finally established, but to Utpaladeva
this is not sufficient. It is true that in this manner cognitions are endowed with a
permanent self acting as their ultimate substratum, but the idle selfe.g. of Nyaya
and Vaisesikawould prove incapable of moving freely through cognitions, now
by uniting them, now by separating them, or, as in the case at issue (the
phenomenon of memory), by retrieving an object and its perception from the past
and making them shine again in the present without cancelling their original nature,
but also without reproducing them mechanically.28 The object recovered by
memory is not the same object as in the original perception, but an object coloured
by it. For that to take place, the dynamism, the sovereignty (aivarya) of the I of the
Saivas is needed.
One of the central points dealt with at length in the Vivti fragment is the inquiry
into the relationship between the perceiving subject (grhaka) and the perceived
object (grhya), on the one hand, and between the perceiving subjectthat is, the
25
27
Vivti vstavena tu bodhaiktman pramtr pramtrantaraikypattir eva param[read: par]
tmavedakatva sarvajasya (Torella 2007c, p. 483.2122).
28
Vivti tmana ca aikyamtrepy audsnyn ananubhavasmaradiaktimattvd aivarya na
syd, etac cokta vakyate ca (Torella 2007c, p. 484.2325).
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empirical subject acting in the maya worldand the subject in the absolute sense,
the Knower (paramrthapramt) identified with Siva or supreme Consciousness,
on the other. The very fact that the Sanskrit language presents the perceiving subject
and the perceived object as a dvandva compound (see the concluding krik of the
fourth hnika, where memory is examined29) points to their mutual dependence,
anyonypek in Utpaladevas words.30 This means, in Abhinavaguptas further
remarks (IPVV II, p. 58.1112), that they are assumed to be linked by a reciprocal
union, a two-directional one (itaretarayoga), and consequently the grammatical
principle of sahavivak intention to express simultaneously applies to them: the
perceiving subject at the same time points at, or expresses, the perceived object, and
vice versa, the ultimate reason for this being the fact that each of them is at the same
time itself and the other (cf. Torella 1987, pp. 155157). According to the Vivti, this
must be understood also in a subtler way: the subject-ness of the mayic individual is
mixed with a more or less conspicuous dose of object-ness, and the object-ness of
the body is mixed with a certain dose of subject-ness. The status of cognizable
object (vedyat) pertaining to the body is not the same as the jars, where the
vedyat is full-fledged and the extreme level of insentience has been reached.
However, the vedyat of the body or the vital breath cannot be compared with the
vedyat of the universe with respect to the level of subjectivity called vara, since
to the latter things appear as non-separate from one another and each thing appears
as made of everything.31 Nor can the level of subjectivity of the empirical perceiver
be comparable with that of vara where the whole mass of cognizable objects is so
to speak covered (sacchdita) by the I.32 By highlighting such a multiplicity of
levels both in subjectivity and objectivity, Utpaladeva aims at undermining the
belief that they may have an intrinsically definite nature. Instead, they are more like
two communicating vessels. In order to explicitate what krik I.4.8cd states (The
two elements divided into perceiving subject and perceived object are manifested
within the [highest] cognizer), the Vivti says: They are woven into any cognizer
who performs the act of reflective awareness.33 So, will they be comparable to two
gems woven into a thread, says Abhinavagupta giving voice to a hypothetical
opponent (IPVV II, p. 58.20)? No; in fact, the Vivti adds immediately after the
above statement: They are indeed made of the cognizer (tanmayv eva).
The critical point for the object is when the knower cognizes it, i.e. makes it
shine, manifests it (prakayati). Kar. I.5.2cd (The light is not differentiated
[from the object]: being light constitutes the very essence of the object) is to be
understood as an allusion to the Bhatta Mmamsaka thesis, which is diametrically
opposed to Utpaladevas position and indirectly helps him formulate his own in a
29
30
31
Vivti grhyasvabhvam api ca tad dehdi na tadn ghadivedanvasara iva prodbhtavedyabhvam avabhsate ham iti prathand varasya iva vastujtam | kevalam varasya tad
anyonypthagbhtam evaikaika vivtmarpam avabhsate | atra tu prdi sarvato bhinnam eva
na tu vivarpatm rayat [] (Torella 2007d, p. 932.1215).
32
5).
33
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R. Torella
35
Vivti ata eva prakasya vedytmatnupapatter na tv aha tev iti gtsktam (Torella 2007d,
p. 936.89).
36
37
Vivti na tv anavacchinnt paramrthaprakd aprakanaprasagt (Torella 2007d, p. 936.18
19).
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alternatives: either to abandon his own specific theses or, if he is still convinced of
them (and, interestingly, this is the case not only for the Buddhist, but for the Saiva
philosopher himself), to change the perspective from which they are to be viewed.
In other words, he should accept the overall theoretical Saiva framework precisely
to safeguard his own Buddhist ideas.
The philosophy of Pratyabhijna is built upon two main cornerstones, both of
them due to Utpaladeva: the above mentioned attitude to the Buddhist prama
philosophers, made of a subtle interplay of attraction and rejection, and the
acceptance of the legacy of Bhartrhari, which had been so openly despised by
Utpaladevas guru Somananda (Torella 2009; Nemec 2011, pp. 5967). Now that it
is possible to look, however partially, into the Vivti, where these two aspects stand
up and are dealt with in a greatly elaborate way, we are no longer allowed to
consider Utpaladeva a mere predecessor of Abhinavagupta and that the latter is the
great master of the Pratyabhijna, but we must rather take Utpaladeva, particularly
with his varapratyabhij-Vivti, as the real centre of gravity of the system, and
Abhinavagupta mainly as his brilliant commentator.
Bibliography
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