History of Indian Cosmogonical Ideas

It deal comprehensively with the history of Indian cosmogonical ideas, tracing the pattern of progress from crude unconnected notion to more refined ideas and broader views and demonstrating the process of the steady but multifarious advance from a concrete physical principle to the abstract, ritualistic, theistic, atheistic and psychological first principles, regarded by different thinkers at different time as the cause of the world. Without an adequate idea of Indian cosmogonical speculations, the knowledge of traditional Indian wisdom remain naturally incomplete, and hence, in order to explain the viewpoint of different schools of thought, each facing the cosmogonical problems in its own way the author resorts to the method of textual documentation, and the results thus produced from a careful and critical analysis of the relevant passages are given in the concluding chapter. An appendix has also been added which is a summary of views expressed by eminent scholars regarding the cosmogoical ideas prevailing among different people outside Indian so that the readers may develop a comparative outlook.

About the Author

Dr. Narendra Nath Bhattacharyya, who began his career as a teacher and journalist, obtained his Doctoral degree and Griffith Memorial Prize from the University of Calcutta in 1965, and since them is engaged in the Centre of Advanced Study in Ancient Indian History and Culture, Calcutta University. His other outstanding publications are Indian Puberty Rites (1968) and Indian Mother Goddess (1971). Dr. Bhattacharyya is also a prolific writer in Bengali language. His Visvasahityer Adiparva (Early Stage of World Literature) is a unique creation in Bengali language. He is currently working on the History of Sakta Religion.

Preface		vii
Chapter 1     Introduction		13
Chapter 2     Rgvedic Cosmogony		24
Chapter 3     Cosmogony of the later Samhitas and the Brahmanas		24
Chapter 4     Cosmogony of the principal Upanisads		35
Chapter 5     Cosmogony of the Sankhya and the range of its influence		50
Chapter 6     Philosophical Cosmogonies		63
Chapter 7     Buddhist and Jain Cosmogonical		74
Chapter 8     Theistic Cosmogonies		84
Chapter 9     Materialistic and Atheistic Cosmogonies		97
Chapter 10     Concluding Remarks		106
Appendix     Cosmogonies of other Countries		114
CHRONOLOGY		124
BIBLIOGRAPHY		126
INDEX		129