The Isvarapratyabhijnakarika IPK of Utpaladeva is the foundation stone of the Pratyabhijna school and constitutes the main theoretical framework of the Trika. It is the most important philosophical work of non-dual tantric Shaivism as a whole. Utpaladeva devoted two commentaries to his IPK a vrtti and a tika . According to Abhinavagupta the IPK and the vrtti thereon were composed by Utpaladeva at the same time. This makes the vrtti and indispenable tool to grasp the original meaning of the difficult karikas of the Isvarapratyabhijna. UNfortunately all vrtti manuscripts from Kashmir broke at the same point and consequently so did the edition published in the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies in 1918.

Utpaladeva devoted two commentaries to his IPK, a vrtti and a tika or viv_ti (now almost totally lost). According to Abhinavagupta, the IPK and the v_tti thereon were composed by

Utpaladeva at the same time. This makes the v_tti an indispensable tool to grasp the original meaning of the difficult karikas of the Isvarapratyabhijna. The present book, originally published in the Serie Orientale Roma (IsMEO), contains the first critical edition of the IPK and, for the first time, the complete text of the vrtti on the basis of a unique Malayalam manuscript discovered in Trivandrum Library by R. Torella, who has also made use of the other incomplete manuscripts from Kashmir. The edition is accompanied by an English translation with copious exegetical notes, which highlight the connections of UtpaladevaÍs thought with the coeval schools of Indian philosophy and, first of all, with the Buddhist pramana tradition.

Review(s)

“[…] The author R. Torella is to be congratulated for the publication of this excellent edition and translation of the IPK and the Vrtti, which is an important contribution to the study of the Kashmir Saivism.” – Masaaki Hattori, Journal of Indian Philosophy, 25,1997, pp. 257-261

[…] Torella’s edition is a great improvement on the editio princeps which is not only incomplete…but also often incorrect. […] Torella’s translation is accompanied by detailed notes which are of great help in understanding the often terse statements made in the stanzas and the Vrtti. They constitute a kind of running commentary which gives evidence of Torella’s wide knowledge of the literature of the Pratyabhijna school and its adversaries. […] His edition and translation of Utpaladeva’s work is an important contribution to the study of the Pratyabhijna school.” – J.W.De Jong, Indo-Iranian Journal, 39, 1996, pp.73-75

“An English translation follows, which is reliable and competent. It is also extremely helpful, for the Sanskrit text is not easy to read. […] Users of this book will be particularly impressed by the notes to the translation, which often covers half or more of the page concerned, and which are a veritable mine of information on any number of issues dealt with by Utpaladeva. References to Buddhist and Brahmanical authors, discussions of the way Abhinavagupta deals with this or that problem, etc., add greatly to the value of this book. Equally informative is the Introduction […].[…] and a general Index conclude this book, which will no doubt remain the standard edition of Utpaladeva’s text. – Johannes Bronkhorst, Asiatische Studien/ etudes Asiatiques, 50, 3, 1996, pp. 603-621

About the Author(s)