Bhaṭṭa Jayanta on Sentence Meaning: A Study in the second half of the 5th book of Nyāyamañjarī

The present Ph.D. thesis, Bhaṭṭa Jayanta on Sentence Meaning: A Study in the second half of the 5th book of Nyāyamañjarī, aims at analysing why a rational human being undertakes an action on hearing an exhortative statement in general and the Vedic injunctions in particular. For this, it draws upon the second half of the fifth book of the Sanskrit work, Nyāyamañjarī, written by the 9th century AD Kashmiri intellectual, Bhaṭṭa Jayanta. This text dialectically discusses rival views on instigation like those upheld by Bādari, Kumārila Bhaṭṭa and Prabhākara Miśra and their respective followers. An understanding of these views has immense bearings on issues like the connection between language and reality; the validity of sacred texts; whether or not sacred texts can instigate us independently of any consideration for the result; the difference between agency and eligibility and how they affect interpretations of causality. Hence an attempt has been made to explore the specificities of Jayanta’s own view in this regard by comparing it with those of his rivals explicitly mentioned and implicitly embedded in this part of Nyāyamañjarī. A comparative assessment of the views of Jayanta and his opponents about how and under what conditions a person undertakes a particular action has also been attempted. With the help of such a comparative assessment it has been possible to underline the real merits of Jayanta’s theory of human motivation