Paper short abstract

León, Archivo Capitular MS 22 (9th cen) is a Spanish theological compilation that has never been exhaustively catalogued. Thus, one excerpt was thought to be from the pseudo-Isidorian 'Liber de numeris'. This paper demonstrates that this is not the case and situates it in its intellectual context.

Paper long abstract

León, Archivo Capitular MS 22 (also known as Codex Samuelis) is a Spanish compilatory manuscript primarily containing excerpts from Patristic works, epistolary writings, and other theological texts that is datable in its present form to 839. Because the codex contains a vast number of excerpts, there has been no published effort to comprehensively and exhaustively catalogue it, even though León MS 22 has been described a handful of times in previous scholarship primarily through Spanish publications. Notably, León MS 22, which presents several excerpts from Isidore’s 'Etymologies' throughout, has been thought to have carried an excerpt of the eighth-century pseudo-Isidorian Hiberno-Latin 'Liber de numeris', which itself was likely originally composed at the Irish monastic intellectual centre at Salzburg.

This paper will demonstrate that this excerpt in question (fols 16vb-17ra) is not in fact from the 'Liber de numeris', contrary to previous published efforts to catalogue León MS 22. Then, it will reassess the excerpt compared to several similar texts from manuscripts from the same period, including an excerpt from the pseudo-Bedan 'Collectanea'. This reassessment will help us to understand the significance of this Isidorian excerpt in León MS 22 as well as better appreciate the relationship between the excerpt, the 'Liber de numeris', the 'Collectanea', and other roughly contemporaneous Hiberno-Latin texts of the period.

Paper short abstract

The paper argues that the issues of Eduards Volters’ (1856–1941) old Latvian beliefs studies reveals imperial and national interests. Methodologically the disscussion is based on discourse analyses and archival data in relation to the history and theory of anthropology and ethnology.

Paper long abstract

The paper argues that the issues of Eduards Volters’ (1856–1941) old Latvian beliefs studies reveals imperial and national interests. The Latvian ethnographer, linguist, mythologist, and archeologist Volters, one of the founders of Lithuanian ethnography, studied Latvian religion and identity since 1882 and the results published in the book "Материалы для этнографии латышского племени Витебской губернии" (1890). His concepts of ethnography, identity, and religion was both interlaced within major traditions of world anthropologies, as well as with the issues and case studies of Russian Empire. The paper will focus on the following questions: (1) religion – the Usiņš in the songs and memory of the Latvian calendar festivals in Vitebsk province; (2) the symbolism of Latvian families’ old beliefs rituals in the domestic sphere and in the language, 1882 and 1884; (3) hermeneutic and political concepts of Volters’ Latvian religion studies. Methodologically the disscussion is based on discourse analyses and archival data in relation to the history and theory of anthropology and ethnology.

Paper short abstract

This presentation will focus on three aspects of the Vaiśeṣika notion of yoga. It will summarize previous scholarly discussions on Vaiśeṣika Yoga, present the Vaiśeṣika definition of yoga and discuss a specific result of yogic practice leading to liberation: yogic perception.

Paper long abstract

The first part of the presentation will cover up-to-date scholarly discussion on Vaiśeṣika yoga. Albrecht Wezler theorized that yoga is not the original teaching of Vaiśeṣika but was introduced into the system in the time of Praśastapāda (Wezler 1982). However, later reexaminations of this theory by Harunaga Isaacson and Masanobu Nozawa argued that it is indeed part of the early layers of Vaiśeṣika thought, thus is important in the original system (Isaacson 1993; Nozawa 1996).

The second part of the presentation will focus on the Vaiśeṣika interpretation of yoga and its psychological correlates. In the Vaiśeṣika-Sūtra, yoga is described in sūtras nos. 5.2.16-17. Sūtra no. 5.2.16, describes: “From the contact of the self, mind, sense organs and object, pleasure and pain [result].“ The next sūtra 5.2.17, has the definition of yoga: “Yoga is the absence of pleasure and pain in the one having a body when the mind resting in the self does not support [contact of the four].” Yoga is defined as a state in which pleasure and pain do not arise.

In the third and final part, I will look at how yoga practice results in yogic perception, a particular kind of cognition, and how it relates to liberation. The leading commentators on the chief Vaiśeṣika text, Padārthadharmasamgraha, allude to the fact that yogic perception plays an important role in the process of liberation. However, because of the ambiguous references to the precise working mechanism of yogic perception, one must attempt to comprehend it in the context of other Vaiśeṣika theories.

Isaacson, Harunaga. 1993. “Yogic Perception in Early Vaiśeṣika.” In Studien zur Indologie und Iranistik. 18: 139–160.

Nozawa, Masanobu. 1996. “Concept of Yoga in the Vaiśeṣika-sūtra”. In Indian Thoughts and Buddhist Culture, Essays in honor of Prof. J. Imanishi on his Sixtieth Birthday: 17-30.

Wezler, Albrecht. 1982. “Remarks on the definition of “Yoga” in the Vaiśeṣikasūtras.” In: Indological and Buddhist Studies. Ed. by L. A. Hercus et al.. Canberra: Faculty of East Asian Studies: 643-686.