Bimal Krishna Matilal

Who was Bimal Krishna Matilal?

Bimal Krishna Matilal was an Indian philosopher whose influential writings present the Indian philosophical tradition as being concerned with the same issues as have been the theme in Western philosophy. From 1977 to 1991 he was the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at Oxford University.

Fluent in Sanskrit from an early age, Matilal was also drawn towards Mathematics and Logic. He was trained in the traditional Indian philosophical system by leading scholars of the Sanskrit College, where he himself was a teacher from 1957 to 1962. He was taught by scholars like pandit Taranath Tarkatirtha and Kalipada Tarkacharya. He also interacted with pandit Ananta Kumar Nyayatarkatirtha, Madhusudan Nyayacharya and Visvabandhu Tarkatirtha. The upadhi of Tarkatirtha was awarded to him in 1962.

While teaching at Sanskrit College between 1957 and 1962, Matilal came in contact with the Indologist Daniel Ingalls of Harvard University, who encouraged him to join the PhD program there. Matilal secured a Fulbright Fellowship and completed his PhD under Ingalls on the Navya Nyaya doctrine of negation, between 1962 and 1965. During this period he also studied with W.V.O. Quine.