This panel examines lost works of Indian literature, religion, and philosophy. It focuses not only on the use of traces — whether fragments, abridgments, or translations — to recover lost works and thereby to gain a greater understanding of Indian traditions, but on the methods and concepts that scholars working in different disciplines and subfields bring to these questions. We are therefore interested in starting a productive dialogue to compare the clues and methods used for studying "lost texts" between participants who work across a range of languages and specializations. Examples might include works presumed lost in their original form but available in summaries or adaptations, some of which have subsequently been recovered (e.g., Taraṅgavaī, Ṇivvāṇalīlāvaī, Suhr̥llēkha); works that are incompletely preserved (e.g., Rukmāṅgada, Pārataveṇpā); works that include portions of texts otherwise lost (e.g., Tridaṇḍamālā, Śr̥ṅgāraprakāśa, Yāpparuṅkalavirutti); or works that are totally lost and known only from either brief quotations or paraphrases (e.g., Mukuṭatāḍitika, Ṣaḍḍhātusamīkṣā, Vyādi's Saṅgraha). We hope that the comparative and synthetic results of this panel will aid in future research, and in view of publishing those results, we ask for original papers.
