Conceptualizing Categories: Texts and Context in Indian Philosophy

Purushottama Bilimoria is an Australian-American scholar of Indian origin. He is a former research fellow of the All Souls College and the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, University of Oxford; the Lead Scientist at the Purushottama Centre for the Study of Indian Philosophy and Culture at Peoples' Friendship University of Russia; a distinguished faculty member at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley; a Chancellor's Scholar, lecturer, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley; a scholar at the Institute for South Asia Studies, University of California, Berkeley; an honorary professor at Deakin University; and a Senior Fellow at the School of Philosophical and Historical Studies and the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the editor-in-chief of 'Sophia' and 'Journal of Dharma Studies' (Springer), and the editor of "Routledge History of Indian Philosophy" (2018).Agnieszka Rostalska is a philosopher specializing in Indian and cross-cultural philosophy, with a focus on sociopolitical philosophy, epistemology, and the philosophy of religion. She currently works on a novel study of the Arthaśāstra as an FWO Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Ghent University. In 2022, she held the 'Cross-Cultural Conceptions of the Self' project, funded by the Global Philosophy of Religion Project and the John Templeton Foundation. She is president of the Logic and Religion Association and a board member of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy and the Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion Unit of the American Academy of Religion. With Nathan R. B. Loewen, she co-edited 'Diversifying Philosophy of Religion’ and 'Philosophies of Self: A Cross-Cultural Introduction,' both published by Bloomsbury.Devendra Singh is an Assistant Professor and Head of the Department of Sanskrit Language and Literature at Sanchi University of Buddhist-Indic Studies. He earned his Ph.D. from the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He worked as a Project Fellow in a UGC Major Research Project, Research Assistant at the Special Centre for Sanskrit Studies at JNU, and Junior Research Fellow at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. His work focuses on Vedic Studies, Ayurveda, and Indian Philosophy. He has authored five books, over fifteen articles, and organized several conferences, including the 2018 International Conference on Shaktatantra. He presented at several academic events, including the 16th World Sanskrit Conference in Bangkok, Thailand, and lectured to graduate students at Capital Normal University in Beijing, China.Renu K. Sharma is an Assistant Professor of Vedic Studies at the University of Allahabad. She earned her Ph.D. from JNU, New Delhi, was a UGC Post-Doctoral Fellow, and worked as an Assistant Professor at Hindu Girls College, Sonepat, Haryana. Sharma has authored two books and over twenty-five articles. Her key publications include Shatapatha Brahmana mein Darshanika Pratika (2014), Shatapatha Shevadhi (2016), and an essay on Disasters in: The Emerging Threshold of Disaster Law, edited by Amita Singh (Routledge: 2018). She organized a 2019 lecture series at Hindu Girls College funded by the Indian Council for Philosophical Research and participated in conferences including the 16th World Sanskrit Conference (2015), the International Conference Veda as Global Heritage (2016), and the 22nd International Congress of Vedanta (2015).

• 1. Introduction.- 2. Particularity and Universality in the Philosophy of Recognition (pratyabhijñā) (Gavin Flood).- 3.The Vaiśeṣika Self: the Norms and Agency of Life (Shalini Sinha).- 4. Later Vaiśeṣika: The ‘Seven Category Ontology’ Reaffirmed (Jonardon Ganeri).- 5. On sāpekṣa and nirapekṣa in the Vaiśeṣikasūtra (Katsunori Hirano).- 6. Categories and Principles of Vaiśeṣika (Subhash Kak).- 7. Taxonomical, Ritual, and Spiritual Exercises: A Heuristic Approach to the Pedagogy of the Vaiśeṣikasūtra-s (Karl-Stéphan Bouthillette).- 8. A Romanized Transliteration of the Manuscript Of Padãrthadhamzasmzgraha Preserved in Kashimir University (Norihiko Tanaka).- 9. On What Being Is and What There Is Not: Engaging ShashiPrabha Kumar on the Vaiśeṣika (Purushottama Bilimoria).- 10. The Metaphysics of Similarity in Kumārila Bhaṭṭa’s Ślokavārttika (Malcolm Keating).- 11. The Fallibilist Epistemology of Gaṅgeśa Applied to the “Gettier Problem” (Stephen Phillips).- 12. The Power of the Unseen: the Concept of adṛṣṭa in Nyāya and its Importance for Philosophy of Religion (Agnieszka Rostalska).- 13. Suffering, Death and Transcendence as Human Value (Asha Mukherjee).- 14. Essence and Difference in Indian Philosophy (Ionut Moise).- 15. Heart Meditation: Rāmānuja on the Chandogya Up. 3.14.1–4. (Halina Marlewicz).- 16. Debate on the Nature of the Goddess in the Rāmānuja School (Gerhard Oberhammer).- 17. On Philosophizing (Ramesh Chandra Sinha).- 18. A Critique of Śaṅkarācārya’s Refutation of Vijñānavāda (Sujata Purkayastha).- 19. Dignāga's Criticism of the Vaiśeṣika Definition of Perception (pratyakṣa) (Victoria Lysenko).- 20. Jayanta on Whether Recognition Refutes Momentariness (Alex Watson).- 21. A Comparative Study of the Concept of Karma and Rebirth in Hinduism and Buddhism (Arvind Sharma).- 22. Concept of Person in the Buddhist School of Thought (Rev. Samdong Rinpoche).- 23. Shadows of Buddhism in Sufism (Lokesh Chandra).- 24. Eternal Veda, Eternal Philosophy? With Special Reference to the Sarvadarśanasaṃgraha (Johannes Bronkhorst).- 25. Can the Vedic Doctrine of the Creative Sacrifice of Puruṣa Enrich Christianity? (M. Krzysztof Byrski).- 26. The Upaniṣads: a Personal Appreciation (Nicholas Kazanas).- 27. The Dharmaśāstric Principles of Rājadharma Advocated by the Rulers of Ancient Assam: Some Inscriptional Evidences (Manjula Devi).- 28. Yogavāśiṣṭha Within and Beyond the Orbit of Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa (Uma Vaidya).- 29. One and All: akṣára in Middle and Late Vedic (Lauren M. Bausch).- 30. Pāṇini 6.1.135 (सुट्कात्पूर्वः) and Related Rules (George Cardona).- 31. Sanskrit Dictionaries in Modern European Languages and a Proposal for a New Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Oscar Pujol).