International Journal of Sanskrit Research
September 1, 2026
Authors Names Swapan Samanta
This paper proposes “epistemological function” as a comparative category for reading Sanskrit epic narrative and applies it to two well-known episodes: the Viśvarūpa of Bhagavad Gītā, Chapter XI, and the sustained portrait of Hanumān in the Sundarakāṇḍa of the Vālmīki Rāmāyaṇa. Both, in different ways, address a single pedagogical difficulty: how a mode of consciousness that exceeds ordinary...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
September 1, 2026
Authors Names Swapan Samanta
Every contemplative discipline begins because something in the practitioner requires cultivation. This paper asks what becomes of the practitioner's dependence on the cultivating instrument once cultivation succeeds. It proposes the Ceiling Theorem: a pathway of practice becomes a ceiling when the integration it has helped to cultivate grows increasingly contingent on the preservation of that...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
September 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
This paper reconstructs, from Sanskrit sources, a philosophical account of how purposive consciousness persists in the forms it produces. The concept of saṅkalpa, read across Chāndogya Upaniṣad 7.4, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 4.4.5 and the ritual practice of declared intention, supplies the ground for what I call the investment hypothesis: humanly organised forms carry forward, as a structured...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
September 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
The Ardhanārīśvara form has been read theologically as a statement about divine completeness, philosophically as a non-dual metaphysics of Prakāśa and Vimarśa, and ideologically as a symbol of gender complementarity. This paper proposes an additional interpretive register: reading the form as a practitioner-centred diagram of liberation, in which the relation between bounded identity and the...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
July 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
Between roughly 500 BCE and the thirteenth century CE, the Indian philosophical traditions — Sāṃkhya-Yoga, Buddhist Abhidharma, and the various schools of Vedānta — developed a precise, multi-term vocabulary for what we should now call the empirical psychology of habit. Four terms carry the conceptual weight: saṃskāra, the discrete imprint left in the mind by each act; vāsanā, the accumulated...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
July 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
Dharma has been extensively defined by source (Jaimini), effect (Kaṇāda), etymology (Mahābhārata), and normative function (Dharmaśāstra), but has rarely been formalised as a mechanism of real-time consciousness-to-action generation. This paper proposes an operational framework at three distinct levels. At the philosophical level, Dharma is identified as the context-sensitive action trajectory...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
July 1, 2026
Madivalappa Nagappa Morabada
This paper presents a cross-disciplinary, comparative analysis bridging the metaphysical foundations of Advaita Vedanta and the empirical formulations of modern quantum mechanics. Classical Newtonian physics long enforced a reductionist, dualistic paradigm of reality, viewing the universe as a collection of isolated, localized material entities. However, the advent of quantum mechanics...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
May 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
For over 2,500 years, liberation (moksha, nirvana, kaivalya) has remained the declared goal of multiple contemplative traditions, yet no operationally defined, cross-culturally applicable, empirically testable framework has existed for determining whether a given historical figure or living person has achieved it. This article presents a structural analysis of Krishna’s documented...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
May 1, 2026
Swapan Samanta
Background: Current developmental theories inadequately address the integration between analytical and holistic cognitive processing in consciousness evolution. Drawing from 30 years of clinical observation and comparative religious studies, we propose a theoretical framework wherein consciousness development depends on balanced cultivation of left-hemispheric (analytical) and right-hemispheric...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
March 1, 2026
Madhuri Sharon, Anuradha Pandey Dubey
This paper explores the emergence of life through a comparative lens that brings Vedic–Upanishadic cosmology into dialogue with modern scientific theories of abiogenesis and consciousness. Classical texts such as the Chāndogya Upaniṣad describe creation as unfolding from Sat, “Existence alone-One without a second,” from which space, air, fire, water, and earth arise through conscious will and...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
March 1, 2026
SN Shridhar
Buddhism provides a comprehensive and detailed approach to human suffering and the wellbeing in general. Based on the teachings of Gautama Buddha, Buddhist philosophy focuses on compassion, mindfulness, and ethical living which are heavily congruous with the universally-recognized values of social work, such as social justice, dignity, service, and empowerment. Buddhism offers a philosophical...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
2026
Ananya Pradhan
The Noble Eightfold Path (Aṣṭāṅgika Mārga), a central Buddhist teaching, offers a structured path to enlightenment and inner peace. It is one of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism, providing a systematic method of attaining wisdom, moral behavior, and mental self-control. It is a pragmatic manual for those who desire inner peace, self-transformation, and freedom from suffering. This study...
International Journal of Sanskrit Research
July 1, 2025
Neelam Kumari
In classical Indian epistemology, the perception of external objects through sensory organs is meticulously theorized. However, the mechanism by which internal states such as pleasure (sukha), pain (duḥkha), and desire (icchā) are known remains a more nuanced subject. This paper conducts a focused investigation into the concept of mānasa-pratyakṣa (mental perception) within the Nyāya-Vaiśeṣika...