Humanities and Languages

Professor Shishir Saxena is a scholar of Indian Philosophy and Sanskrit. His research includes studies on the epistemological debates in the Indian philosophical tradition (darśana) as well as on the deontic logic and structure underlying Mīmāṃsā hermeneutic reasoning. His work explores also the two Sanskrit epics Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata, for matters philosophical and otherwise. He teaches several courses in Philosophy (especially Indian Philosophy), and also offers introductory grammar and advanced reading courses in Sanskrit. He is presently the Assistant Editor of the Journal of Indian Philosophy.

Prior to joining Ahmedabad University, he was pursuing his post-doctoral research (2018-19) at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) in Vienna. He received his PhD (2019) and MPhil (2014) from the University of Cambridge, and studied for an MA (2013) at the Banaras Hindu University. His earlier education includes a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and an MBA in Finance, subsequent to which he spent five years in consulting in Mumbai before beginning his studies in Indian Philosophy.

Professor Saxena's PhD thesis, titled "Linguistic and Phenomenological Theories of Verbal Cognition in Mīmāṃsā", was a philosophical and philological study of the two Mīmāṃsā theories of sentential meaning (abhihitānvaya and anvitābhidhāna) with a focus on the two seminal texts Vākyārthamātṛkā-I and Kāśikāṭīkā. Modern scholarship is scarce with regard to both these works, and the thesis presented a translation/paraphrase of the several levels of argumentation found in the Vākyārthamātṛkā-I as well as an annotated edition and translation of the yet unpublished Kāśikāṭīkā on Ślokavārttika Vākyādhikaraṇa vv.110cd-112ab based on the study of two manuscripts. 

At the IKGA, he was part of the WWTF project ‘Reasoning Tools for Deontic Logic and Applications to Indian Sacred Texts’, a cross-disciplinary team which included computer scientists and logicians working on the deontic logic developed within the philosophical school of Mīmāṃsā. His work focussed on hermeneutic solutions put forth by Mīmāṃsā thinkers with regard to instances of conflicting Vedic commands, and was thereby concerned with several technical aspects of prescriptions (vidhi) and prohibitions (pratiṣedha / niṣedha).

At Ahmedabad University, he continues to work and publish on both these topics - the nature of sentential meaning as well as the deontic logic of Mīmāṃsā. He has recently worked on the the epistemological debates on the nature of perception (especially as presented in Śālikanātha's Prakaraṇapañcikā), and has also become quite interested in exploring philosophically and philologically the two Sanskrit epics - Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata. The celebrated Mīmāṃsaka philosopher Kumārila Bhaṭṭa (c.600-650 CE) explicitly states that the epics are for investigating into the nature of the puruṣārthas, and Professor Saxena is keen to study closely the critical editions of these monumentally influential works to develop a philosophically cogent account of this framework.  

• ‘Enraged, But Only Out of Love’: Sītā’s Disagreement With Rāma in the Ayodhyākāṇḍa of the Vālmīki-Rāmāyaṇa. The Journal of Hindu Studies (2023). https://doi.org/10.1093/jhs/hiad022
   
• Is Word-Meaning Denoted or Remembered? Śālikanātha’s Cornerstone in Defence of Anvitābhidhāna. Journal of Indian Philosophy (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-021-09503-z. (See here for view-only version)
   
• When Texts Clash: Mīmāṃsā Thinkers on Conflicting Prescriptions and Prohibitions. Journal of Indian Philosophy 48, 467–501 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-020-09428-z. (See here for view-only version)
   
• Denotation as Complex and Chronologically Extended: anvitābhidhāna in Śālikanātha’s Vākyārthamātṛkā-I. Journal of Indian Philosophy 47, 489–506 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10781-019-09394-1. (See here for view-only version)
   
• The concepts of svabhāva and svadharma in the Bhagavadgītā and their centrality in the karmayoga. Apūrvā, Research Journal, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University (2012)

Courses taught:

• PHI175 Is Philosophy Dead? Great Ideas Across Space and Time  
   
• PHI215 Introduction to Indian Philosophy
   
• PHI315 Advanced Introduction to Indian Philosophy
   
• PHI415 Śabda, Artha, Rasa: Contours of Indian Philosophy of Language
   
• SAN101 Learning Sanskrit Through Sanskrit Literature: Elementary
   
• SAN102 Learning Sanskrit Through Sanskrit Literature: Intermediate
   
• SAN201 Reading Sanskrit Scholastic Texts: Elementary
   
• SAN202 Reading Sanskrit Scholastic Texts: Intermediate