When is a coconut not a coconut?
Using semiotics to harness culture in India
Seema Khanwalkar Quest, ORG-MARG Research Private Limited,
'CONTEXT-SENSITIVITY' IN INDIA
In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad adhyaya 5 Brahman 2 Lord Prajapati speaks in thunder three times: 'DA DA DA'. When the gods, given to pleasure, hear it, they hear it as the first syllable of damayata, 'control'. The antigods, given as they are to cruelty, hear it as dayadavam, be 'compassionate'. When the humans, given to greed, hear it, they hear it as datta, 'give it to others' (Hume 1931, 150).
Indian philosophers had conceived life...