Killing Brahmins and Drinking Wine – Grahaikatva-Nyāya From the Perspective of TV I.3.7

Presenter:

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Abstract

At least some secondary literature on Indian law (e.g. Keith, The Karma-Mīmāṃsā 1921: 105) illustrates the grahaikatva-nyāya with the reference to the prohibition of drinking liquor as discussed for example by Medhātithi ad MDhŚ V.90 (89). However, the inspiration for this discussion combining the prohibition of drinking liquor with that of killing Brahmins comes from Kumārila’s Tantravārttika, but not, as one would expect, from TV III.1.13-15, but from TV I.3.7. Thus, the linking of the two prohibitions appears to go back to Patañjali (cf. Olivelle, in: Hindu Law, 2018: 53), while the original context of the discussion is of dharma-mūlas. In the paper I trace the argumentation of the both relevant portions of TV with particular attention to the perspective of the two of its commentators, Pariṭoṣamiśra, and, especially, Someśvara, while establishing the relationship between the two portions of the TV in terms of supporting the view of Medhātithi. This philological and interpretative task is supplied with reference to some contemporary linguistic approaches to indexes of humanness and plural number (cf. Radden, in: Studies in Linguistic Motivation, 2004).