Papers by Florina Dobre Brat
A brief presentation (in Romanian) of S.Brassai's collection of Sanskrit books available with the... more A brief presentation (in Romanian) of S.Brassai's collection of Sanskrit books available with the Romanian Academy Library in Cluj-Napoca. Published in an exhibition catalogue. 15 februarie 2023.
Fiice ale Indiei. Eseuri despre femei remarcabile și rolul lor în societatea indiană. volum îngrijit de Mihaela Gligor, prefață de Andreea Voina, Casa Oamenilor de Știință, Cluj-Napoca, 2022
Professor Gheorghe Sarau: a Life Devoted to the Rromani Language. Collective Volume at his 60th Birthday, 2016
Studii Clasice , 2021
In Indian culture, the concept of pratibhā, generally known as intuition, accommodates a number o... more In Indian culture, the concept of pratibhā, generally known as intuition, accommodates a number of meanings and undertakings: from basic, intuitive knowledge to the highly refined, intuitive, and visionary force of understanding the reality of the mystic seers and yogis. According to the grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari (cc 460-510 AD), pratibhā is the groundwork for defining the role of language in cognition from both grammatical and philosophical perspectives. Pratibhā is also, in Bhartṛhari's view, an innate primordial knowledge rooted in all living beings, from the highest to the lowest, including animals and birds, which makes them give course to their natural action in due time. Pratibhā changes the sound of the male cuckoo to their appealing songs in the springtime or drives them to build their nests, lay their eggs, and bring up their offspring. This paper explores the inborn aspects of the pratibhā type of knowledge and dwells on its fundamental feature, which is non-sequential and a lack of time development as it usually manifests as a spontaneous flash of understanding. Furthermore, it seeks to inquire and analyse to what extent pratibhā might share or intersect with some common points of the Greek pairs of krónos-kairós.
Diakrisis, Jul 31, 2022
The Vedas are said to be not a human creation (apauruṣeya), but Revelation imparted to the Vedic ... more The Vedas are said to be not a human creation (apauruṣeya), but Revelation imparted to the Vedic sages who have put it down in inspired verses. Vedas’ words are therefore divine and eternal, and thus extensively praised. Vāc, the Vedic word, is eulogised in several hymns, among which Vāk Sūkta (X.125) is by far the most illustrative of all. In some teachings of the Upanishads, Vāc is equated to Brahman alongside other interpretations.
When analysing the nature of the word, centuries later, philosophers and grammarians refer to it as śabda, and no longer as Vāc, the latter remains somehow confined to a rather poetical and mystical reality. Yet, the idea of the eternal and divine character of the scriptures is superimposed on the Sanskrit language also, despite certain historical change remarks on the grammarians' side. In the 5th century CE, Bhartṛhari displays a genuine linguistic and philosophical thought of the folding and unfolding of Reality and its understanding as Word-Principle (brahman śabda-tattva). From an auxiliary science of preserving the correct forms of the Vedas, Sanskrit grammar acquires a hermeneutical role and empowers itself as a way to salvation, an idea supported by previous evidence of grammar's role in producing celestial happiness (abhyudaya), merit and righteousness (dharma).
I seek in this paper to analyse and point out the strongholds that underpin Sanskrit as a divine language and how continuity and change coexist to support over millennia this undaunted approach.
Studii Clasice XLIX, 2020
The vigorous stoicism professed by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius as displayed in his seminal Medi... more The vigorous stoicism professed by Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius as displayed in his seminal Meditations has produced over time a remarkable body of literature. Besides the literary accomplishments of this work, the Meditations are highly tempting to enable their readers to set further parallels with other thought systems from different cultural areas. The Roman emperor's concept of an individual share of life resembles strikingly the message of the classical Indian svadharma, which represents one's right, duty or nature in accordance with one's caste (varṇa), stage of life (varṇāśrama), and one's role in the social and cosmic order. It is the cornerstone of the karma yoga as it's explained and developed in Bhagavad Gītā. This paper aims to highlight these similarities, bringing in as well the Buddhist highly ethical-philosophical interpretation of the svadharma concept as related to the Eightfold Noble Path. The responsible action (karman) as an alternative way to that of meditation is also pursued in both the Roman world and in Classical India.
Bhakti Beyond the Forest Current Research on Early Modern Literatures in North India, 2003-2009.Papers Presented at the Tenth International Conference: Early Modern Literatures in North India held at Sapientia, Hungarian University of Transylvania, Miercurea Ciuc, Romania between 22-24 July 2009, 2013
Revista Română de Istorie a Cărții, 2012
Biblioteca Academiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca, adăpostește o colecție notabilă de carte sanskr... more Biblioteca Academiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca, adăpostește o colecție notabilă de carte sanskrită publicată în secolul XIX. Cele mai multe dintre aceste volume provin din biblioteca Colegiului Unitarian din Cluj, care a fost transferată în 1948 la Biblioteca Academiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca. Majoritatea specialiștilor sunt de părere cele mai multe volume provin din biblioteca umanistului transilvănean Sámuel Brassai. Majoritatea studiilor despre viața, personalitatea și opera lui Sámuel Brassai sunt în limba maghiară, așadar accesul nemijlocit la aceste surse documentare, dar și la manuscrisele fondului unitarian, este condiționat de o bună cunoaștere a maghiarei.
Lucrarea de față își propune să facă o prezentare generală a acestei colecțiii de carte sanskrită și încearcă, în egală măsură, să schițeze în linii mari portretul umanistului transilvănean și preocupările acestuia legate de studiul și predarea limbii sanskrite la Cluj în secolul XIX.
Cuvinte cheie: Sámuel Brassai, Biblioteca Acdemiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca, carte sanskrită, unitarianism, indianistică în România.
Travaux de Symposium International Le Livre. La Roumanie. L’Europe, troisième édition 20 à 24 septembre 2010, tome III, 2011, pp.101-112. , 2011
Lucrările Simpozionului Internațional Cartea. România. Europa, ediția a II-a, 20-24 septembrie 2009 , 2010
This paper does not refer strictly to the broad topic of myths and rituals, but it touches upon t... more This paper does not refer strictly to the broad topic of myths and rituals, but it touches upon the aspects of purification and accomplishment that generally pertain to rituals, applied to language and grammar, or rather as observed by the philosophy of grammar.
Thus, the aim of this paper is to shed more light on the expression abdasaṁskāra (word purification) which occurs a number of times in the Brahmaka, the first part of the Trik work, written by the 5th century CE grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari.
Proceedings of the International symposium, University of Valahia, Targoviste, 2007
Revista de Filosofie, 2017
Paginile de faţă îşi propun o scurtă trecere în revistă a filosofiei limbajului în spaţiul cultu... more Paginile de faţă îşi propun o scurtă trecere în revistă a filosofiei limbajului în spaţiul cultural indian, începând cu imnurile vedice care fac referire sau sunt închinate zeiţei Cuvânt şi încheind cu importanţa şi relevanţa gramaticianului-filosof Bharthari, secolul V d.Hr. Sintagma de „filosofia limbajului” poate părea, desigur, uşor forţată sau artificială când vrem s-o aplicăm unei gândiri mitice unde religiosul se împleteşte inextricabil cu filosofia. Dar, dacă interpretăm filosofia în cheie etimologică, atunci spaţiul indian devine, paradoxal, unul dintre cele mai fertile locuri unde inefabilul, miticul şi logicul nu se exclud, ci, dimpotrivă, coexistă şi pot fi gramaticalizate pe propriile lor nivele de existenţă.
Studiul de faţă se concentrează asupra filosofiei gramaticii sanskrite, a marilor gramaticieni indieni şi a viziunii acestora asupra gramaticii şi limbii, urmăreşte câteva teme centrale de teoria limbajului şi, în cele din urmă, se opreşte asupra câtorva dintre punctele esenţiale pentru care Bharthari poate fi numit cu adevărat gramatician-filosof.
Revue Roumaine de Philosophie , 2018
Abstract. In the Classical Indian theories of language, there are two fundamental directions of p... more Abstract. In the Classical Indian theories of language, there are two fundamental directions of primary word meaning: the jātivāda, words as universal (jāti) propounded by Vājapyāyana, and the vyaktivāda, words express individual (vyakti) by Vyāḍi. The first import of the word is what encompasses the philosophical relevance, whereas the latest one refers rather to the grammatical aspects of word analysis such as word grammatical categories and its syntactical capability. The universal of a word is considered as the basis on which stands the individual and is the efficient cause (nimittakāraṇa) of the existence of a word.
There is a constant balance between the two theories that go hand and hand one implying the other one. The 16th century Bhaṭṭoji Dikṣita reconciles the two theories in rather grammatical terms. Prior to him, the grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari, 5th AD century, builds on the inventory of all the possibilities of primary word meaning the unique theory of the universal of the universals.
In this paper, I am attempting to survey the classical philosophical arguments of both the universal and individual word meaning theories with a close focus on Bhartṛhari’s postulation of the universal of universal as the link to the ultimate reality, seen as the brahman śabda-tattva, the core of his philosophy.
Conference Presentations by Florina Dobre Brat
The Pāṇinian kārakas paradigm encapsulates a very complex grammatical content as well as a philos... more The Pāṇinian kārakas paradigm encapsulates a very complex grammatical content as well as a philosophy of language interpretation of both semantic and syntactic layers as put forth by later grammarians among whom Bhartṛhari holds a privileged position. From this perspective, the analysis of the case structure of an European language such as Romanian, a Romance or Romanic language, originated from Latina vulgara and the autochthonous linguistic substratum, gains in depths and comprehension. This paper aims at pointing out the evolution of the case structure in modern Romanian language as a member of the Indo-European family as comparing to the kārakas of the Pāṇini"s Aṣṭādhyāyī. It also attempts to trace out the philosophical language insights of the Pāṇinian kārakas that governs the mechanism of the concrete and the abstract form of language that might apply also to a modern Romanic language.
Symposium International Le Livre.La Roumanie. L'Europe, quatrième édition, septembre 2012, Bucarest, Roumanie
The Library of the Romanian Academy in Cluj Napoca Branch gathers a noticeable collection of Sans... more The Library of the Romanian Academy in Cluj Napoca Branch gathers a noticeable collection of Sanskrit books published in the 19th century. Most of these books were a part of the library of the Unitarian College of Cluj, transferred in 1948 to the Library of the Romanian Academy. To all appearances, most of the Sanskrit books were collected by the renowned humanist Samuel Brassai. As a large part of the research related to this important cultural personality of the 19th century in Transylvania has been written in Hungarian, quite little is known to Romanian Indologists about Brassai’s contribution to Sanskrit studies in Transylvania. Among the most important titles of this collection, it should be mentioned the complete Mahābhārata in 19 volumes and Rāmayaṇa in 7 volumes, and the first editions of the Tibetan Grammar and An Essay towards a Dictionary Tibetan and English of Alexander Csoma de Körös, published in 1834 in Calcutta.
My paper aims to outline the history of this collection of Sanskrit books and to analyze its importance and historical relevance to the Sanskrit Studies in Romania. Depending on the availability of resources, I will also attempt a look at the main author of this collection, Samuel Brassai.
Keywords: Samuel Brassai, Library of the Romanian Academy-Cluj Napoca Branch, Mahābhāta, Rāmayaṇa, Romanian Indologists. Sanskrit books, Tibetan Dictionary, Tibetan Grammar, Unitarian College of Cluj.
Books by Florina Dobre Brat
Omagiu lui Rabindranath Tagore, ediție îngrijită de Mihaela Gligor, Casa Oamenilor de Știință, Cluj-Napoca, 2021
Cînd nu se mai cîntă Mahabharata
Book Reviews by Florina Dobre Brat
Romanian Journal of Indian Studies, 2024
Romanian Journal of Indian Studies no 8/2024, 2024
Studii Clasice, 2022
Responsabilitatea pentru conținutul fiecărui text publicat în această revistă, conform legislație... more Responsabilitatea pentru conținutul fiecărui text publicat în această revistă, conform legislației civile și penale în vigoare, le revine exclusiv autorilor.
Uploads
Papers by Florina Dobre Brat
When analysing the nature of the word, centuries later, philosophers and grammarians refer to it as śabda, and no longer as Vāc, the latter remains somehow confined to a rather poetical and mystical reality. Yet, the idea of the eternal and divine character of the scriptures is superimposed on the Sanskrit language also, despite certain historical change remarks on the grammarians' side. In the 5th century CE, Bhartṛhari displays a genuine linguistic and philosophical thought of the folding and unfolding of Reality and its understanding as Word-Principle (brahman śabda-tattva). From an auxiliary science of preserving the correct forms of the Vedas, Sanskrit grammar acquires a hermeneutical role and empowers itself as a way to salvation, an idea supported by previous evidence of grammar's role in producing celestial happiness (abhyudaya), merit and righteousness (dharma).
I seek in this paper to analyse and point out the strongholds that underpin Sanskrit as a divine language and how continuity and change coexist to support over millennia this undaunted approach.
Lucrarea de față își propune să facă o prezentare generală a acestei colecțiii de carte sanskrită și încearcă, în egală măsură, să schițeze în linii mari portretul umanistului transilvănean și preocupările acestuia legate de studiul și predarea limbii sanskrite la Cluj în secolul XIX.
Cuvinte cheie: Sámuel Brassai, Biblioteca Acdemiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca, carte sanskrită, unitarianism, indianistică în România.
Thus, the aim of this paper is to shed more light on the expression abdasaṁskāra (word purification) which occurs a number of times in the Brahmaka, the first part of the Trik work, written by the 5th century CE grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari.
Studiul de faţă se concentrează asupra filosofiei gramaticii sanskrite, a marilor gramaticieni indieni şi a viziunii acestora asupra gramaticii şi limbii, urmăreşte câteva teme centrale de teoria limbajului şi, în cele din urmă, se opreşte asupra câtorva dintre punctele esenţiale pentru care Bharthari poate fi numit cu adevărat gramatician-filosof.
There is a constant balance between the two theories that go hand and hand one implying the other one. The 16th century Bhaṭṭoji Dikṣita reconciles the two theories in rather grammatical terms. Prior to him, the grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari, 5th AD century, builds on the inventory of all the possibilities of primary word meaning the unique theory of the universal of the universals.
In this paper, I am attempting to survey the classical philosophical arguments of both the universal and individual word meaning theories with a close focus on Bhartṛhari’s postulation of the universal of universal as the link to the ultimate reality, seen as the brahman śabda-tattva, the core of his philosophy.
Conference Presentations by Florina Dobre Brat
My paper aims to outline the history of this collection of Sanskrit books and to analyze its importance and historical relevance to the Sanskrit Studies in Romania. Depending on the availability of resources, I will also attempt a look at the main author of this collection, Samuel Brassai.
Keywords: Samuel Brassai, Library of the Romanian Academy-Cluj Napoca Branch, Mahābhāta, Rāmayaṇa, Romanian Indologists. Sanskrit books, Tibetan Dictionary, Tibetan Grammar, Unitarian College of Cluj.
Books by Florina Dobre Brat
Book Reviews by Florina Dobre Brat
When analysing the nature of the word, centuries later, philosophers and grammarians refer to it as śabda, and no longer as Vāc, the latter remains somehow confined to a rather poetical and mystical reality. Yet, the idea of the eternal and divine character of the scriptures is superimposed on the Sanskrit language also, despite certain historical change remarks on the grammarians' side. In the 5th century CE, Bhartṛhari displays a genuine linguistic and philosophical thought of the folding and unfolding of Reality and its understanding as Word-Principle (brahman śabda-tattva). From an auxiliary science of preserving the correct forms of the Vedas, Sanskrit grammar acquires a hermeneutical role and empowers itself as a way to salvation, an idea supported by previous evidence of grammar's role in producing celestial happiness (abhyudaya), merit and righteousness (dharma).
I seek in this paper to analyse and point out the strongholds that underpin Sanskrit as a divine language and how continuity and change coexist to support over millennia this undaunted approach.
Lucrarea de față își propune să facă o prezentare generală a acestei colecțiii de carte sanskrită și încearcă, în egală măsură, să schițeze în linii mari portretul umanistului transilvănean și preocupările acestuia legate de studiul și predarea limbii sanskrite la Cluj în secolul XIX.
Cuvinte cheie: Sámuel Brassai, Biblioteca Acdemiei Române, filiala Cluj-Napoca, carte sanskrită, unitarianism, indianistică în România.
Thus, the aim of this paper is to shed more light on the expression abdasaṁskāra (word purification) which occurs a number of times in the Brahmaka, the first part of the Trik work, written by the 5th century CE grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari.
Studiul de faţă se concentrează asupra filosofiei gramaticii sanskrite, a marilor gramaticieni indieni şi a viziunii acestora asupra gramaticii şi limbii, urmăreşte câteva teme centrale de teoria limbajului şi, în cele din urmă, se opreşte asupra câtorva dintre punctele esenţiale pentru care Bharthari poate fi numit cu adevărat gramatician-filosof.
There is a constant balance between the two theories that go hand and hand one implying the other one. The 16th century Bhaṭṭoji Dikṣita reconciles the two theories in rather grammatical terms. Prior to him, the grammarian-philosopher Bhartṛhari, 5th AD century, builds on the inventory of all the possibilities of primary word meaning the unique theory of the universal of the universals.
In this paper, I am attempting to survey the classical philosophical arguments of both the universal and individual word meaning theories with a close focus on Bhartṛhari’s postulation of the universal of universal as the link to the ultimate reality, seen as the brahman śabda-tattva, the core of his philosophy.
My paper aims to outline the history of this collection of Sanskrit books and to analyze its importance and historical relevance to the Sanskrit Studies in Romania. Depending on the availability of resources, I will also attempt a look at the main author of this collection, Samuel Brassai.
Keywords: Samuel Brassai, Library of the Romanian Academy-Cluj Napoca Branch, Mahābhāta, Rāmayaṇa, Romanian Indologists. Sanskrit books, Tibetan Dictionary, Tibetan Grammar, Unitarian College of Cluj.