Mrinal Kaul

Mrinal Kaul is an Associate Professor of Indian Philosophy at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) in Mumbai. Before this, he taught at the Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale" (Italy) from 2012 to 2015 and at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities from 2015 to 2021. He earned his MA in Sanskrit from St Stephen’s College in the University of Delhi, M.St. in Classical Indology from the University of Oxford and PhD in the Philosophy of Religion from Concordia University in Montréal.

His research interests focus on the non-dual Śaiva philosophy, particularly the tenth-century philosopher Abhinavagupta. Some of his publications include:

• ‘Ontological Hierarchy in the Tantrāloka of Abhinavagupta’ in the Tantric Traditions and Philosophy of Kashmir (2018); 
• ‘Abhinavagupta on Reflection (Pratibimba) in the Tantrāloka’ (2019) published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy; 
• ‘Causal Reasoning in the Trika Philosophy of Abhinavagupta’ in the Springer Handbook of Logical Thought in India (ed. Sundar Sarukkai) (2020); 
• ‘A Preliminary Note on the Manuscripts of the Tantrāloka-viveka’ in Verità e Bellezza-Essays in Honour of Raffaele Torella (2022); 
• ‘What does Abhinavagupta mean by Non-duality (advaita)?’ (2025); and 
• ‘Is Reflection Real according to Abhinavagupta? Dynamic Realism versus Naïve Realism?’ (2024), both published in the Journal of Indian Philosophy (Springer). 

Together with Ashok Aklujkar, he edited a volume titled Linguistic Traditions of Kashmir, published in 2008. A volume titled Minor Works of Abhinavagupta, edited together with Francesco Sferra, is about to be published in Naples, Italy. A joint translation project of the Śivasūtravimarśinī, along with Ben Williams, is in progress and will be published by the State University of New York Press.