Notes for an Ontological Approach within Manuscript Studies: Object Oriented Ontology and the Pothi Manuscript Culture

Defining a specific manuscript culture can be seen as an exercise in ontology. The present article embraces and applies the philosophical framework of object-oriented ontology (triple-O) as developed by the contemporary philosopher Graham Harman in order to appreciate what we can call the ‘pothi manuscript culture’. As we acknowledge the existence of such a specific manuscript culture and the fact that it thrived for circa two millennia in South, South-East and Central Asia, we venture into identifying key historical moments and hypothesising possible counterfactual events that shaped it as a social object.