The study of quotations is a largely unexplored field within Indian śāstric literature. Yet, this study may have major implications for the critical constitution of a text, the evaluation of its role within the historical development of the ideas it represents and the understanding of Indian compositional habits. Moreover, it may call into question Western contemporary attitudes to texts as authored entities by showing how heavily this view depends on specific historical circumstances and has, hence, not always and everywhere been the rule. This article examines these issues in comparative context before focusing on a case study from the Tantrarahasya of the post thirteenth-century Prābhākara Mīmāṃsaka, Rāmānujācārya. In this article, I study all sorts of embedded texts, even if not acknowledged to be quotations as such. Hence, the study of quotations coincides with the study of how Indian authors composed their texts re-using previous texts as building blocks. I argue that quotations may also be a useful device for understanding an author’s compositional habits and his/her ‘originality’. This concept is in bad need of a definition applicable in Indian contexts. In fact, Indian classical authors may be judged rather flawed in terms of modern views of plagiarism and are all by and large non-original. Contemporary scholars often look in vain for monographs within Indian śāstra literature and find only commentaries and commentaries on commentaries. But, looking at the way texts are built through quotations and use quotations as springboards, one eventually understands that an Indian author’s skill (and hence originality) can be recognized indeed in his/her apt arrangement of earlier texts.
目次
Introduction 162 Fundamental Questions 163 Why Do We Need a Study of Quotations at All? 163 What Do We Need to Study? 164 India and the West on the Lack of Authoriality 164 Critical Background 164 Copying and Copyright 167 Literal Quotations and the Form of a Text 169 Auctoritas or Echoes of a Text? 170 Sacrum Furtum or Plagiarism? 171 Analysing Quotations in Indian Texts 172 The Difference between ‘Proper’ Quotations and References 173 Objections Embedded in a Text 174 Quotations and ‘Originality’ in Indian Texts 174 A Case Study: Ramanujacarya’s Tantrarahasya 176 Texts as Jigsaws of Quotations: Rāmānujācārya’s Tantrarahasya(TR) 177 Summary of TR IV (§1–3) 178 ‘Proper’ Quotations in TR IV (§1–3) 181 Conclusions on the Use of Proper Quotations in TR IV (§1–3) 182 References in TR IV (§1–3) 183 References: Introductory Formulae, iti, and Authors’ Names in TR IV (§1–3) 183 Conclusions on the Quotation-Reference Distinction in TR IV (§1–3) 185 General Conclusions 186 Abbreviations 187 References 187
