Abstract

Jiva Gosvamin is the most important philosopher of the five-hundred year old Gaud&dotbelow;iya Vais&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;ava tradition of Hinduism, a tradition that has an enormous following particularly in the north of India. Despite the Jiva eminence in the history of Gaud&dotbelow;iya Vais&dotbelow;n&dotbelow;avism, his thought remains only minimally explored by Western scholars of Indian religion and philosophy. In my dissertation, I have chosen to focus specifically upon the epistemological theories of this medieval thinker due to the uniqueness of his position on the precise locus of authoritative knowledge. That locus, for Jiva Gosvamin, is the Bhagavata Puran&dotbelow;a. In leading to his conclusions, Jiva Gosvamin originates three original theories that distinguish him quite markedly from the majority of previous orthodox Vaidika philosophers. He accepts a total of ten pramanas as being epistemologically authoritative. He gives authoritative precedence to the smrti literature over the sruti canon. He finds his ultimate epistemic authority in the direct insight into the nature of the Absolute that was purportedly perceived by the sage Vyasa and recorded in the scripture known as the Bhagavata Puran&dotbelow;a. ;I have several aims in this dissertation. First, since Jiva Gosvamin represents a school of thought relatively unknown in the Western world, I will present a detailed outline of his epistemological theories and place them within the greater context of Indian philosophy. This will be accomplished by surveying his theories as contained in his two greatest epistemological works: Tattva-sam&dotbelow;darbha and Sarva-sam&dotbelow;vadini in juxtaposition with the epistemological theories of earlier Indian philosophers. Second, I will analyze and critique his arguments from a philosophical perspective. I will speculate about the implications of these epistemological theories for the future of epistemology and philosophy---both Euro-American and Indian. Additionally, I will conduct an exhaustive critical examination the validity of his three original arguments from the context of Vaidika orthodoxy itself