Reading list

Source: TW

Recently heard an occidental discussion on whether the basic college degree should focus on reading a diversity of “great books” or specialized training in mathematics& statistics & natural science. There was also the question of how these tie into vocational training in med& eng. I personally feel that in the old Indian system where we had junior college =2 years after school is the time for indulging a broader base of things like great books. After that, those who want to go vocational can specialize in such training. Those who want to be more scholastic can either pursue more of the knowledge of the ancients in a textual studies setting or combine that to differing degrees with Math-code-stats-science.

1 question is what would be the “great books” for an Indian setting. Would they be in the original or initially in translations? Would there be group discussion or purely individual testing on the “great books” that are chosen? Would there be a mix of H, yavana, chIna, & early modern “great books” or a more restricted set?

🧵Some “great books” for H educational reading with some comments

  1. Excerpts from the 4 shruti-s & their a~Nga-s (I know many would go apoplectic with this suggestion: I see your point)
  2. vedA~Nga-jyotiSha with numerical examples& practical observations of the sky
  3. kaNAda’s sUtra-s w commentarial material
  4. excerpts from jaimini’ sUtra-s with glosses
  5. pata~njali’s yogasUtra-s w vyAs-abhAShya
  6. excerpts from itihAsa-s & harivaMsha
  7. excerpts from proto-skandapurANa
  8. readings from mAlinIvijaya, nishvAsa, netra, lakShmI, pauShkara
  9. kumArasaMbhava
  10. kAmasUtra of vAtsyAyana (I understand some people might object)
  11. kauTilIya arthashAstra
  12. readings from charaka, sushruta, vAgbhaTa & kAshyapa saMhitA.
  13. e.g.s from the AryabhaTIya – at least work out of kuTTaka & sine tables.
  14. e.g.s from bhAskara’s works – chakravAla, volume of a sphere.
  15. e.g.s, nArAyaNa’s works: combinatorics and sequences.
  16. Anandavardhana’s devIshataka
  17. kR^ishi-parAshara
  18. Excerpts from bhaTTa jayanta’s nyAya-ma~njarI
  19. nIlakaNTha’s jyotirmImAMsA
  20. excerpts from yogavAsiShTha with excerpts from bhaTTa bhAskarakaNTha’s TIka and extension of above Readings from some Indian counter-religions?
  21. e.g., bauddha kAlachakra-tantra
  22. umAsvAti’s tattvArtha-sUtra-s. I understand it might be difficult to get qualified teachers Ideally, I would like to add readings from king bhoja-deva’s
  23. samarA~NgaNasUtra-dhAra
  24. yuktikalpataru and king someshvara chAlukya’s
  25. mAnasollAsa. However, these texts need some editing

2019 list

Source: TW

I admit his endeavor is very problematic: he says in the beginning of the thread 100 works of philosophy/literature. Do science/mathematics count in philosophy/literature? I think they cannot be separated. Of course he presents its from the viewpoint of his own self constructed “civilization” which is really an artificial and shaky construct. I would split it up into Judaeo-Christian and Islamic on the Abrahamistic side, Greco-Roman will be separate and Iranian will get its own with Firdausi going into that out of the “Islamicate” system he proposes.

On the Hindu side, if we were to stick to philosophy of course I would insist on texts like

  • pata~njali (pANini being difficult by itself);
  • the vaisheShika-sUtra-s of kaNAda along with prashastapAda’s bhAShya, the 2 of which I think are among the greatest monuments of H thought
  • The jyotir-mImAMsA of nIlakaNTha somayAjin and the mAnomeyodaya of nArAyaNa bhaTTa and nArAyaNa paNDita.
  • tantrAloka of abhinavagupta
  • and aghorashiva deshika’s commentaries.
  • Of course if we were to add scientific works AryabhaTa would definitely figure alongside his bhAShya-s, the siddhAnta-shiromaNi of bhAskara-II; gaNitakaumudi of nArAyaNa paNDita;
  • charaka, sushruta, kAshyapa saMhitA-s;
  • Other works I would suggest are daNDin’s kAvyadarsha; kAvyamImAMsA of rAjashekhara; kShemendra’s kavikaNThAbharaNa;
  • vAcaspati miShrA’s commentaries;
  • bhojadeva’s samarA~NgaNa-sUtradhAra & shR^i~NgAra-prakAsha and rAjamArtANDa; tatplavoplava-siMha; Anandakanda;
  • vidyAkAra’s subhAShita-ratna-kosha:

this eclectic list can go on but I stop here.