Continuing on the themes and tone set in the successful first edition, the second edition was held at IGNCA, New Delhi and engaged with six additional topics. Pollock’s rather questionable theses on Rasa portraying it as regressive and primitive, his use of text critical methods and his own conception of three dimensional Philology, his innovative use of questionable chronology of Sanskrit works to aid his theories on the creation, spread and evolution of ideas in Sanskrit and other Bharatiya language traditions, Pollock’s use of the interpretations of Mimamsa by Western Indology to build his own critique of Mimamsa denying the basic premise of the notion of dharma and its seeking, the flagrantly divisive theses positioning Buddhism socio-politically as anti-dharma, building upon the philosophical positions of these two dharma based traditions and lastly the examination of the overarching motivations of his body of scholarship as instruments attempting to disparage and desacralize every significant artifact in the Sanskrit tradition thereby undermining the Sanskrit and the core ethos of Sanatana dharma.
Two book length monographs, critically examining Pollock’s scholarship on the Ramayana and critiques of his research methodology of Philology from a Nyaya perspective were also presented. A small team of traditionally trained Sanskrit scholars also engaged with Pollock’s critiques on the Sanskrit tradition and responses were provided in the format of the oral tradition – the vakyartha. An open invitation was given not only to Prof Pollock but to all western indologists and Sanskrit scholars in general welcoming them to debate in traditional form and structure without resorting to alien western methods of analysis and argument.
The rigorous purvapaksha and uttarapaksha of the two conferences were befittingly rounded out by the vakyartha sadas. The tradition responded to the centuries of critique by the west on its own terms.