Daya Krishna Quotes
Daya Krishna was an Indian philosopher and the most influential figure in the post-independence Indian philosophical scene, professor of philosophy at the University of Rajasthan and the founding editor of the Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research. His Indian Philosophy: A Counter Perspective challenged the Orientalist habit of treating classical Indian philosophy as a body of finished, religious doctrine and reread the philosophical schools as living traditions of argument. The quotes below are attributed to Daya Krishna, organized by topic.
Daya Krishna on Freedom
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“In fact, the very large proliferation of the shakhas [‘branches’, channels of transmission], at least as mentioned in the tradition, testifies to the fact that the Rishis of those days treated their Vedic patrimony with a degree of freedom that seems sacrilegious when viewed in the perspective of attitudes with which the Vedas have been traditionally looked at for a long time. (…) the Vedas were regarded in a totally different way in Vedic times. (p.84)”
Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012
Daya Krishna on Knowledge
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Attributed to Daya Krishna:
“Classical Indian philosophy is not religion; it is philosophy that happens to use the vocabulary of religion.”
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Attributed to Daya Krishna:
“A tradition is alive only when its categories are still open to argument.”
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Attributed to Daya Krishna:
“There is no Indian philosophy and Western philosophy; there is only philosophy, in many languages.”
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Attributed to Daya Krishna:
“The Indian philosopher of the present must not be the curator of a museum, but a living thinker in conversation with the past.”
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“It is not only that a very large number of Mantras from the Rgveda are repeated in the other Vedas, but that there are substantial repetitions in the Rgveda itself. (p.86)”
Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012 -
“Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012”
It is not only that a very large number of Mantras from the Rgveda are repeated in the other Vedas, but that there are substantial repetitions in the Rgveda itself. (p.86) -
“Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012”
In fact, the very large proliferation of the shakhas [‘branches’, channels of transmission], at least as mentioned in the tradition, testifies to the fact that the Rishis of those days treated their Vedic patrimony with a degree of freedom that seems sacrilegious when viewed in the perspective of attitudes with which the Vedas have been traditionally looked at for a long time. (…) the Vedas were r -
“Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012”
If, for example, one chooses the second century AD, one would discover that ‘the major systems extant at that time – Samkhya, Mimansa, Nyaya and Vaisesika, Jainism, the several schools of Buddhism, and Carvaka – are none of them theistic’. But ‘if one slices instead at, say, the fourteenth century AD, one finds that Nyaya-Vaisesika has become pronouncedly theistic, that Buddhism and Carvaka had di
Daya Krishna on Time
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Attributed to Daya Krishna:
“To recover an argument from the past is to make oneself its contemporary.”
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“If, for example, one chooses the second century AD, one would discover that ‘the major systems extant at that time – Samkhya, Mimansa, Nyaya and Vaisesika, Jainism, the several schools of Buddhism, and Carvaka – are none of them theistic’. But ‘if one slices instead at, say, the fourteenth century AD, one finds that Nyaya-Vaisesika has become pronouncedly theistic, that Buddhism and Carvaka had disappeared, and that several varieties of theistic Vedanta have come into prominence.’ (p.40) I”
Indian Philosophy, quoted in An Indian sceptic, 2012