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University of Cambridge

Limits of the real: A hypertext critical edition of Bhartṛhari's Dravyasamuddeśa, with the commentary of Helārāja

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

This dissertation is divided into two parts. The first is a critical study of the Dravyasamuddeśa, a chapter from the Vākyapadīya of Bhartṛhari, a 5th-century Sanskrit philosopher of language. It also deals with the 10th-century commentary of Helārāja, which was highly influential in shaping the interpretation of the text by later authors. Although the Vākyapadīya is a treatise on Sanskrit grammar, and this particular chapter purports to deal with the grammatical category of dravya, in the Dravyasamuddeśa, Bhartṛhari is mostly concerned with establishing a non-dual theory of reality. Helārāja, five centuries later, defends this theory and attempts to re-interpret other schools of thought, namely Buddhism and Sāṃkhya, in its terms. The second part of the dissertation is a critical edition and annotated translation of the Dravyasamuddeśa and the commentary. It also describes the making of the edition – for this project, an open source software package was developed to automatically collate diplomatic transcriptions of manuscript witnesses in order to generate an apparatus variorum. The resulting apparatus forms part of an interactive, online digital edition of the text, from which the printed edition is generated.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
2018

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Li, Charles Cheuk Him
Advisor dc:contributor.advisor
  • Vergiani, Vincenzo

Subjects

dc:subject × 12

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Author Identifier
0000-0002-3202-2787
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/284085

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Cambridge University
Base URL
api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Li, Charles Cheuk Him. Limits of the real: A hypertext critical edition of Bhartṛhari's Dravyasamuddeśa, with the commentary of Helārāja. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 2018. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.31454