Indian Knowledge Systems (2 Vols-Set)
Contents: Vol. I: Acknowledgement/Kapil Kapoor and Avadhesh Kumar Singh. Key to transliteration. Prefatory note/Kapil Kapoor and Avadhesh Kumar Singh. I. Indian knowledge systems: (Ex)positions: 1. Indian knowledge systems: nature, philosophy, character/Kapil Kapoor. 2. Amara-Bharati: Sanskrit and the resurgence of Indian civilization/M.D. Srinivas. II. Indian knowledge systems and science: 3. Educating sciences of life and mind/Ananda Wood. 4. India's scientific mind: a quest for infinity/Michel Danino. 5. Dividing the thousand into three/Wagish Shukla. 6. Some special features in procedures of Ganesa Daivajna's Grahalaghavam: a study of its special features/S. Balachandra Rao. 7. Philosophy and science in Indian texts/Ravi Khanna. III. Medical Science in India: 8. Modern medicine and ancient Indian wisdom/B.M. Hegde. 9. Ayurveda as a knowledge system/P. Ram Manohar. 10. Social organization of knowledge in India: folk and classical traditions/A.V. Balasubramanian. IV. Psychology, polity and sociological texts: 11. Psychology: five major Indian contributions/Matthijs Cornelissen. 12. Indian political thought/Ashok S. Chausalkar. 13. Governance according to Manu-smrti/Bharat Jhunjhunwala. 14. Agriculture and trade in India/P. Shashi Rekha. 15. Treatment of women in Indian sociological texts: with reference to Manu-Smrti/Chandrakala Padia. 16. The Indian Noetic tradition: the Dharmasastras -- Bharatiya Jnana-parampara/Santosh Kumar Shukla. 17. Vision of disaster management in Kautilya's Arthasastra/Niranjan Patel. 18. Indian psyche -- a note/V. Prakasam.
Vol. II: Key to transliteration. V. Aesthetics and poetics: 19. Alam Brahma/Rewaprasad Dwevedi. 20. Salvation by knowledge: Ananda Coomaraswamy and the tradition of Indian aesthetics/Chandrashekhar Jahagirdar. 21. Krsna Dvaipayana's Veda of life/Kavita A. Sharma. 22. Reading the first Adhyaya of the Natyasastra/Makarand Paranjape. 23. Neither Amnesia nor Aphasia: knowledge, continuity and change in Indian poetics/Avadhesh Kumar Singh. VI. Philosophy, logic and language: 24. Buddhist traditions and knowledge/Geshe N. Samten. 25. Indian ontology: from Veda and Vedanta/Shashiprabha Kumar. 26. One universe -- multiple systems: two major sources/Renu Malhotra. 27. Principles of determining the meaning of words and sentences: the Mimamsakas' perspectives/Daya Shankar Mishra. 28. Ontology of speech sounds/Rajnish Kumar Mishra. 29. Toward a theory of syntax/Bhavatosh Indraguru. 30. Vakyapadiya: basic linguistic concepts/R.V. Dhongde. VII: Knowledge formation, dissemination and practice: 31. Syncretism in Indian knowledge systems: a case study of Durga Puja/Debasish Chakrabarty. 32. Narrative as epistemology in the Brahmana texts/Atanu Bhattacharya. 33. Folk wisdom and environmental crisis: a contemporary case study from the Western Himalayas/Raghubir Singh Pirta. 34. Saraswati Hieroglyphs and Bharatiya cultural continuum: Mlecchita Vikalpa and Bharatiya Sabhyata/S. Kalyanraman. Index.
"India has continuous and cumulative intellectual traditions in many domains of knowledge. This tradition has its beginning in the Rgveda, the first attested Indo-European document, and continues to be alive in the life, practices and learning of the Indian people. The power and pertinence of knowledge systems in this tradition are attested by the existence of innumerable texts and thinkers that continue to be the subject of study in major contemporary universities round the world.
Not many today are aware of this rich heritage of thought. The academy therefore produces rootless young minds that at best are ignorant and at worst have contempt for their own traditions of thought.
The two volumes, comprising 34 articles by distinguished scholars, expound some major Indian knowledge systems viz. Logic, philosophy of language, technology and crafts, polity and governance, ethics and sociological texts, architecture, poetics and aesthetics, law and justice, mathematics and astronomy, agriculture, trade and commerce and medicine and life science. Under its seven sections -- i. Indian knowledge systems (ex)positions; ii. Science; iii. Medical science in India; iv. Psychology, polity and sociological texts; v. aesthetics and poetics; vi. philosophy, logic and language; and vii. knowledge formation, dissemination and practice -- it makes available the first statements that articulate their validity for the contemporary Indian and western reality." (jacket)
