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10th-Century 'Chetana-Vimarsha-Naya' Manuscript Discovered in Srinagar Vault Explores the Logic of 'Self-Witnessing'

📅 April 4, 2026 📰 The Indian Express
10th-Century 'Chetana-Vimarsha-Naya' Manuscript Discovered in Srinagar Vault Explores the Logic of 'Self-Witnessing'

A team of digitizers at the Kashmir Research Institute has uncovered a 10th-century Sharda script manuscript titled the Chetana-Vimarsha-Naya. The text belongs to the Pratyabhijna school of Kashmiri Shaivism but introduces a previously unknown formal logical system for analyzing the 'witnessing consciousness.'

The manuscript provides a rigorous breakdown of Vimarsha (self-reflexive awareness), positing that the act of perception is inherently a dialogue between the observer and the observed. This find is significant for its early attempts to create a mathematical-like notation for mental states, predating many of the formal developments of late Navya-Nyaya logic and offering a unique insight into the cognitive science of ancient Kashmir.

Original source: The Indian Express