Review

Reviewed Work(s):
Epistemology of the Bhāṭṭa School of Pūrva Mīmānsā
by Goverdhan P. Bhatt
Review by: R. P. Pandey
Source: Philosophy East and West, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1963), pp. 80-82
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1396790
Accessed: 22-01-2021 15:03 UTC

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 80 BOOK REVIEWS

stages are described.

it is through very in
of perfection. Anoth
the analysis of the st
not necessary to go i
significant features
They show how our a
are looked upon as r
life in the proper d
by intense self-contr
arise due to our desi
develop both right kn
This book is of imm
thinkers in the anal
psychological growth
so much time and sp
spent a little more eff
value of the work wo
giving the source m
could have been mor
would have been very

B. KUPPUSWAMY
India International Center, New Delhi

EPISTEMOLOGY OF THE BHATTA SCHOOL OF PTJRVA MIMANSA. By

Goverdhan P. Bhatt. Varanasi: Choukhamba Publishers, 1962. Pp. ix + 436. Rs. 20/ -

The attempt of Dr. Bhatt to give us a book on the epistemology of

the Bhdtta school is highly praiseworthy. For, as the author states in the Preface,
"While there are elaborate works on the epistemology of Nydya, Veddnta, Rdmdnuja,
etc., there is none on the epistemology of Kumdrila."
The first two parts of the book, more than three hundred pages, are exclusively
devoted to a comparative study of the epistemologies of the different schools of Indian
philosophy, and reveal Bhatt's remarkable scholarship. Book II, on "Sources of Valid
Knowledge" (pram nas) (pp. 146-367), is particularly illuminating, as it carries a
detailed and intensive comparative study of different epistemologies. We may not
agree with the author in his conclusions, such as the testability of truth in terms of
self-validity of knowledge (Chap. IV; pp. 136ff.), or arthapatti (presumption) as an
independent source of knowledge, but the impartiality of his attempt to deal with
various views is beyond question.
Like many other scholars of Indian philosophy, the author shows an awareness of
the objective, analytic approach to the problems he discusses; but he scarcely tries to
follow it in its full implications. If he had done so, he might have seen some of those
problems in clearer perspective. For example, in his discussion on "negation" (pp.
341-369) as a source of knowledge, he is dearly concerned with establishing nega-

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BOOK REVIEWS 81

tivity as a fact rathe

negativity cannot be
fact of existence--a m
all the sources of kno
duality being the ne
primarily a question o
negation is the absen
of objectivity qua th
to subjectivity. That
therefore, insofar as
knowing subject for
tries to deny. But th
it as a source of know
And, also, the non-ex
ing it as an indepen
inference, etc., in t
distinct from that of
pendent object confr
"object," in the subje
objectivity (vyipti),
independent of the k
itself which provides
is, negation in epistem
ing, of which Bhatt
On the issue of the
consistent, though ev
mana. In fact, he sh
cannot be a source of
Kumarila think, as d
would render it incap
should be clear in vi
"other to the self,"
function within this
In this connection, B
phers" to "maintain
go out to the object
In the first place, th
theory"--or it can be
formal structure in m
tention that such a v
founded, since, besid
view seeks to establi
phrase "going out" is
suggest that mind ph
physically move in to
jects is suggestive onl
detailed analysis. For

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 82 BOOK REVIEWS

negation is an indepe
negation as a fact of
Book I of Bhatt's w
is due mostly to the
without clearly dist
cluding even "cognit
pressions (pp. 51ff.),
mostly, by the term
to use a word in mo
definitions. It is obvi
had the author used
Another important d
that, though Bhatt

epistemology
mology. of the
The concern ofBh.tta school,including
Mimnrhsakas, he omitsKumdrila,
the ethical
for notes in Mimarihs.
the quality of action episte-

is well the
admits known,
moraland,
valueeven though
of truth. Kum.rila
In the did notinterpretation
contemporary make it explicit, it appears as if he
of traditional
Indian philosophy, the tendency to make epistemology non-moral is increasingly
fashionable, and Bhatt is no excepion to this. While it is open to question whether or
not morality should be discussed along with epistemology, we obviously do less than
justice to Indian philosophical tradition in presenting or interpreting it without its
ethical connotations.

R. P. PANDEY
East-West Center at the University of Hawaii

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