The anonymous pre-Gangesa Navya-Nyaya treatise Upadhidarpana (UD) deals exclusively with the so-called upadhi, a key concept in the Navya-Nyaya theory of inference. The present volume contains the first published edition and translation of the only extant manuscript of the UD. Numerous notes have been added to the translation in order to elucidate the contents and to give a clue to the historical context, as regards authors, works, and philosophical doctrines that are referenced in the UD. Moreover, an extensive introductory chapter provides new insights into relations between the Navya-Nyaya doctrine of upadhi and modern logical theories such as John L. Pollock's theory of defeasible reasoning and property theories, especially property adaptations of well-founded and non-well-founded set theories. A very intriguing aspect of the UD is the author's attempt to define all candidate upadhis by means of a "general defining characteristic" (samanyalaksana) which is a property of itself. He advocates a non-well-founded property concept and distances himself from what is communis opinio in Nyaya, viz. that self-dependence (atmasraya) is a kind of absurdity. No such discussion concerning the problem of foundation in the Navya-Nyaya logic of property and location is to be found in the later Upadhivada of Gangesa's Tattavacintamani.

English summary: This introduction to classical Sanskrit, based on teaching practice in introductory courses at universities, provides a basic knowledge of classical Sanskrit in 37 lessons and exercises. The scope of the grammatical content corresponds approximately to that of older textbooks (such as A.F. Stenzler's Elementarbuch der Sanskrit-Sprache, elementary book of Sanskrit language). However, the grammatical explanations are much more detailed and do not require any previous knowledge of classical languages (such as Latin or Greek). To make the rather complex morphology more easily accessible, numerous diagrams have been provided to act as teaching aids. The exercises, that draw on the pool of sayings and quotations in older textbooks, even provide sufficient examples of the use of the aorist, injunctive mood and precative - in contrast to most other introductions to Sanskrit. Working through the textbook either through self-study or in a two-semester course at university will prepare the student for the reading of classical Sanskrit works. German description: Die Einfuhrung in das klassische Sanskrit, die aus der Unterrichtspraxis universitarer Einfuhrungskurse hervorgegangen ist, vermittelt in 37 Lektionen mit Ubungen die Grundkenntnisse des klassischen Sanskrits. Der Umfang des grammatischen Stoffs entspricht in etwa dem alterer Lehrbucher (wie z.B. A.F. Stenzlers "Elementarbuch der Sanskrit- Sprache"). Allerdings sind die grammatischen Erlauterungen sehr viel ausfuhrlicher und setzen keinerlei Vorkenntnisse in klassischen Sprachen (wie Latein oder Griechisch) voraus. Um einen leichteren Zugang zu der recht komplexen Formenlehre zu ermoglichen, werden viele Diagramme als didaktische Hilfsmittel eingesetzt. Das Ubungsmaterial, das sich aus dem Fundus an Kunstsatzen und Zitaten alterer Lehrbucher rekrutiert, bietet - im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Sanskrit-Einfuhrungen - auch noch genugend Anwendungsbeispiele fur Aorist, Injunktiv und Prekativ. Wer das Buch im Selbststudium oder in einem 2-semestrigen Kurs an der Universitat durcharbeitet, besitzt die notigen Voraussetzungen, um sich der Lekture klassischer Sanskritwerke widmen zu konnen.