Anonymus Casmiriensis: „Path to Liberation“ (Moksopaya) in 30.000 Stanzas. Completion of the critical edition of the Mokṣopāya in the form of volumes no 7 of altogether seven volumes (text and German translation respectively), supplemented by concordance lists.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Walter Slaje
• Subject Area: Asian Studies
• Term: from 2006 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 24204086

Completion of the critical edition of the Mokṣopāya in the form of two volumes no 7 of altogether seven volumes (Sanskrit text and German translation respectively), supplemented by concordance lists.Moksopaya („Path to Liberation“) is the title of a philosophical – conceived as liberating – Sanskrit work containing c. 30.000 stanzas. It was composed by an anonymous poet in the middle of the 10th century in Kashmir. Basing himself on philosophically unique ideas, the author developed an ex-planatory model of the world in its ontological and phenomenological aspects, differing considerably from the models advocated by the well-known traditional systems of Indian philosophy.The person behind the Moksopaya rejected the soteriological meaningfulness of blind faith in the authoritativeness of revealed scriptures, but in contrast emphasized using one’s own intellect in-stead. The original version of the composition has been preserved among the variants transmitted by a number of manuscripts belonging to the Kashmirian recension, which was identified and made applicable to further research in a study by the applicant published in 1994. Earlier, the exceptional philosophical poetry of the Moksopaya was received only in the seriously distorted shape of the pan-Indian vulgate recension – the famous Yogavasistha –, handed down modified, in a philosophically tendentious and poetically poor manner. By way of this, the structure, spirit and literary quality of the original Kashmirian Moksopaya was cut off from the reception in the Indian plains. The present edi-torial undertaking seeks to recover this veritable monument of Indian philosophy and literature, hav-ing lain buried under the textual debris of the Yogavasistha for now almost one millennium. By its critical edition, a unique philosopher and ingenious poet will be secured for a universal history of philosophical thought and soteriological ideas. It is only by means of a complete historico-critical edition, which methodically speaking has the potential to restore the author’s original wording from the pool of variant readings preserved by the local manuscripts, that his lost ideas and stylistic idio-syncrasies can be recovered. Backed by an annotated, philological translation, the ensuing edition will at the same time serve as a sound basis for analysing and exposing its intra-cultural Indian con-texts with a view to relating the results to the globally enlarged framework of a universal history of ideas and literature and to classifying them accordingly. Furthermore, considerable gain of knowledge and augmented insight can be expected in the realms of lexicon and linguistics (Sanskrit in Medieval Kashmir), the history of philosophy, the sociology of religion (vita activa vs. vita contem-plativa), universal history (Indian soteriological rationalism, theoretical approaches paralleling Euro-pean ideas of enlightenment) and more.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants