Philosophical query into the working of language has occupied an important place in the rich tradition of thought in India since the ancient times. This book throws light on various debates in classical Indian Philosophical tradition concerning the structure of language and meaning. Papers in this book have been arranged in four groups basing on their thematic composition. The book begins with the general issues relating to language as figured in classical schools of Indian philosophy. Papers dealing with the semantic structure of language as discussed by Chartrhari in his Vakyapadiya follow this. The next set of papers is related to some of the important semantic notions of Nyaya philosophy of language. In this respect, notions like sense, reference, proper names, meaning, etc., have figured in for discussion. The last set of papers is concerned with the import of sentences wherein papers dealing with Purva-Mimamsa are included. One of the significant features of this volume is that some of the issues and problems in Indian Philosophy of language have been approached from the contemporary Western perspective with a view to explicate and evaluate them in a better way and this would be of considerable interest to scholars and students of philosophy, particularly those involved in the study of classical Indian philosophy.

Papers presented at the National Seminar on Classical Indian Philosophy of Language held at Hyderabad during 18-20 October, 2000.