Some Hitherto Unknown Fragments of Utpaladeva’s Vivṛti (II): Against the Existence of External Objects

Abstract

Raffaele Torella’s discovery and remarkable edition of the only (and very incomplete) manuscript of the Vivṛti thus far known1 has enabled us to determine with certainty that some marginal annotations in manuscripts of Abhinavagupta’s Īśvarapratyabhijñāvimarśinī (henceforth ĪPV) and Īśvarapratyabhijñāvivṛtivimarśinī (henceforth ĪPVV) regularly quote Utpaladeva’s lost work. Nine of the ĪPV manuscripts that I have been able to consult contain such quotations;2 two ĪPVV manuscripts3 known to me bear several fragments, the most important of which is by far the lengthiest Vivṛti fragment known to date (including the one found in the codex unicus edited by Raffaele Torella), covering three Vivṛti chapters;4 and two manuscripts of the Īśvarapratyabhijñāvṛtti (henceforth Vṛtti) have been shown to contain some much shorter Vivṛti quotations.5 The following pages are an attempt to edit and translate