Bimal Krishna Matilal (1 June 1935 – 8 June 1991) was an eminent British-Indian

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

whose writings presented the Indian philosophical tradition as a comprehensive system of logic incorporating most issues addressed by themes in Western

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

. From 1977 to 1991, he was the

Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics The Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics is the holder of an endowed chair at the University of Oxford. The Spalding Chair of Eastern Religions and Ethics was established on a trial basis in 1936 with a grant from the Spalding Trust. ...

at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Education

Literate in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

from an early age, Matilal was also drawn towards

Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

Logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating how conclusions follow from premises ...

. He was trained in the traditional Indian philosophical system by leading scholars of the

Sanskrit College The Sanskrit College and University (erstwhile Sanskrit College) is a state university located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It focuses on liberal arts, offering both UG and PG degrees in Ancient Indian and world history, Bengali, English, Sa ...

, where he himself was a teacher from 1957 to 1962. He was taught by scholars like pandit Taranath Tarkatirtha and Kalipada Tarkacharya. He also interacted with pandit Ananta Kumar Nyayatarkatirtha, Madhusudan Nyayacharya and Visvabandhu Tarkatirtha. The ''upadhi'' (degree) of Tarkatirtha (master of Logic) was awarded to him in 1962. While teaching at the

(an affiliated college of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

) between 1957 and 1962, Matilal came in contact with Daniel Ingalls, an

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, who encouraged him to join the PhD program there. Matilal secured a

Fulbright fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...

and completed his PhD under Ingalls on the

Navya-Nyāya The Navya-Nyāya or Neo-Logical ''darśana'' (view, system, or school) of Indian logic and Indian philosophy was founded in the 13th century CE by the philosopher Gangeśa Upādhyāya of Mithila and continued by Raghunatha Siromani of Nabadwi ...

doctrine of

negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...

, between 1962 and 1965. During this period he also studied with

Willard Van Orman Quine Willard Van Orman Quine (; known to his friends as "Van"; June 25, 1908 – December 25, 2000) was an American philosopher and logician in the analytic tradition, recognized as "one of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century". ...

. Subsequently, he was professor of Sanskrit at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

, and in 1977 he was elected Spalding Professor at Oxford, succeeding

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 1888 – 17 April 1975), natively Radhakrishnayya, was an Indian philosopher and statesman. He served as the 2nd President of India from 1962 to 1967. He also 1st Vice President of India from 1952 ...

and

Robert Charles Zaehner Robert Charles Zaehner (1913–1974) was a British academic whose field of study was Eastern religions. He understood the original language of many sacred texts, e.g., Hindu (Sanskrit), Buddhist (Pali), Islamic (Arabic). At Oxford University his ...

Death

Matilal died of cancer on 8 June 1991.

Awards

Padma Bhushan The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...

1990

Works by Matilal

In his work, he presented Indian logic, particularly Nyāya- Vaiśeṣika,

Mīmāṃsā ''Mīmāṁsā'' (Sanskrit: मीमांसा) is a Sanskrit word that means "reflection" or "critical investigation" and thus refers to a tradition of contemplation which reflected on the meanings of certain Vedic texts.

and

Buddhist philosophy Buddhist philosophy refers to the philosophical investigations and systems of inquiry that developed among various schools of Buddhism in India following the parinirvana of The Buddha and later spread throughout Asia. The Buddhist path combin ...

, as being relevant in modern philosophical discourse. Matilal presented Indian Philosophical thought more as a synthesis rather than a mere exposition. This helped create a vibrant revival of interest in Indian philosophical tradition as a relevant source of ideas rather than a dead discipline. He was also the founding editor of the '' Journal of Indian Philosophy''.

Books

* * * *''Logical and Ethical Issues: An essay on the Indian Philosophy of Religion'', Calcutta University 1982 (repr. Chronicle Books, Delhi 2004) *''Navya Nyâya Doctrine of Negation'', Harvard Oriental Series 46, 1968 * * *''Niti, Yukti o Dharma'', (in

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

), Ananda Publishers Calcutta 1988. See also th
entries in Worldcat

References

External links

was organized in

Jadavpur University Jadavpur University is a public state university located in Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established in 1905 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into Jadavpur University in 1955. In 2022, it was ranked fourth am ...

in January 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Matilal, Bimal Krishna 1935 births 1991 deaths Indian Sanskrit scholars Sanskrit grammarians University of Calcutta alumni Harvard University alumni University of Calcutta faculty Indian logicians Epistemologists Spalding Professors of Eastern Religion and Ethics Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Indian writers Indian male writers Indian non-fiction writers Indian male non-fiction writers Indian educators Educationists from India Indian editors Indian magazine editors 20th-century Indian non-fiction writers 20th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian philosophers 20th-century Indian educators 20th-century Indian scholars People from Jaynagar Majilpur People from South 24 Parganas district West Bengal academics Scholars from West Bengal Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom British Sanskrit scholars British logicians 20th-century British philosophers