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About Mrinal Kaul
A Kashmiri by birth, Mrinal maintains a strong interest in the Śaiva studies of Kashmir. As an academic scholar, he recognizes the necessity to equip himself with the analytical skills to approach the discipline critically and objectively. He has been approaching this system historically, sociologically, anthropologically and also as a textual scholar.
Mrinal chose Humanities after High School at the Gandhi Memorial College, Jammu & Kashmir, and studied English literature, Philosophy, History and Sanskrit. During his two years of pre-university level education, he studied some Sanskrit and examined the Śaiva traditions of Kashmir. He studied the introductory texts of the main philosophical systems and Kashmirian Trika along with grammar under the tutelage of Pandit Dinanath Yaccha. At his suggestion, Mrinal reviewed chapters from the doctoral dissertations of his research students, writing short summaries with evaluations in response.
Before long a student of Sanskrit at St Stephen's College, the massive course offerings of the University of Delhi afforded Mrinal the opportunity to study wide range of texts. He also studied English and Philosophy as optional subjects. His inquisitiveness and liking for Indology lead him to read a variety of independent studies by both Indian and overseas scholars, and his teacher Dr Harsh Kumar introduced him to the methodology for studying philosophical Sanskrit texts. He also developed an interest in the Ancient Indian Sciences and published papers on the subject with the critical guidance of his tutor Dr A.D. Mathur.
The Kashmirian Śaiva scriptures were never a component of his formal
curriculum, but he learnt the basic principles of these systems with
traditional and modern scholars, very few of whom are now available in
India. During his period of Undergraduate study, Mrinal read some
primary texts of Trika Śaivism with his teacher in Kashmir and also
with Pandit Hemendra Nath Chakravarty in Varanasi. Through his regular
interactions with Professor Navjivan Rastogi and Dr Bettina Baumer, he learnt about the
importance of hermeneutics in Kashmirian Śaiva schools, and the role
hermeneutics has to play in the traditional understanding of the texts.
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Attending the workshops organised by the Trika Interreligious Trust in Varanasi and by the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, brought Mrinal into intellectual exchange with a wide range of international research scholars and assisted him in developing a perspective on research. At the same time, he developed a literary taste for his native tongue; Kashmiri.
After graduating from St Stephen's College, Mrinal spent a year in the University of Pune, studying Indian Logic, Manuscriptology and the methodology of Textual Criticism. He was fortunate to assist certain scholars of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute in studying some Śāradā manuscripts, and the traditional Sanskrit scholars of Pune exposed him to a variety of dimensions in Nyāya and Vyākaraṇa.
Subsequent to the fruitful year in Pune, Mrinal rejoined the University of Delhi and privately studied sections from the Īśvarapratyabhijñāvimarṣinī and Parātriśikāvivaraṇa with Professor Nilkanth Gurtu. He also took lessons from Prabha Devi on Abhinavagupta's Tantrāloka. His M.A. courses at the University of Delhi exposed him further to an array of innovative concepts and texts, and, in order to have a firm basis in different schools of Indian thought, he opted to specialize in Indian Philosophy reading the basic texts on Mīmāṃsā, Sāṃkhya and some more advanced texts of the Vedānta, Nyāya and Yoga schools.
Mrinal worked with Professor Alexis Sanderson at the University of Oxford for his Master's dissertation (Causality and Ontological Hierarchy in the Tantrāloka). The one year rigorous training under his proficient tutelage proved an important learning experience, and further nurtured Mrinal's aspirations. Working with Professor Alexis Sanderson made him realize that the history of Kashmirian Śaiva schools has seldom been studied seriously by earlier researchers.
Once adept in Classical Indology with proficiency in Sanskrit language and literature, Mrinal's aspiration is to develop his research work and teach at a University with strength in research.
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