Buchbesprechungen Comptes Rendues

Author(s): Nalini Balbir
Publisher: Nalini Balbir
Catalog link: https://jainqq.org/explore/269424/1

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NALINI BALBIR: Avasyaka-Studien, Introduction générale et Traductions. Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien 45,1. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1993. THOMAS OBERLIES: Avasyaka-Studien, Glossar ausgewählter Wörter zu E. Leumanns "Die Avasyaka-Erzählungen". Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien 45,2. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1993.
E. Leumann's booklet Die Āvaśyaka-Erzählungen (AKM Band 10 - Nr. 2, Leipzig. 1897) has never received much attention. The reasons for this neglect seem fairly obvious. To begin with, there is the jumble of typographic devices which were introduced in order to combine the different versions of a story into one text. Secondly, no information is given concerning the specific setting and function of a story. Leumann's Übersicht über die Āvaśyaka-Literatur, which appeared posthumously in 1934, did not make good this omission. Thirdly, the stories were edited without a glossary explaining at least the most obscure Prākrit words and passages.
Professor Balbir has taken it upon herself to retrieve the Avaśyaka stories from oblivion and to make them accessible to a wider public. In the first part of Avasyaka-Studien she describes the literary corpus to which the stories belong, while in the second part Leumann's text is presented, translated and annotated. Dr. Oberlies prepared a glossary of the more difficult and rare Prākrit words occurring in the stories. This glossary was published in a separate volume.
Among other things, Balbir has gone through Leumann's Nachlass in search of papers relevant to the subject at hand. It is somewhat sad to have to comment on the neglect of Die Āvasyaka-Erzählungen, seeing, from the conspectus on pp. 26-30 and from the extracts published throughout the book, how much work had already been done by Leumann himself.
In the first part of the book (881-6) the reader is expertly guided through the highly complex, multi-layered Avasyaka corpus. This corpus has previously been described by Leumann (Übersicht, 1934) and by Bruhn ("Avaśyaka Studies I", Studien zum Jainismus und Buddhismus (Gedenkschrift für Ludwig Alsdorf), 1981, pp.11-49). In the case of Leumann the description had been based entirely on manuscripts. At present, for most of the texts concerned printed editions are available, admittedly of uneven quality, through which Leumann's material could be complemented. Even while the overall picture has changed only in detail, one

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cannot but welcome this new survey by Balbir as Leumann's Ubersicht is highly technical and is aimed at, if only by its presentation, only the most perseverant among the specialists. Bruhn's exposé, on the other hand, is for a considerable part taken up by methodological considerations.
Balbir's survey is lucid and highly informative, and, though in itself the situation of the Avaśyaka corpus is not unique in Jaina literature, takes little for granted. Its clarity may also in part be due to the fact that the survey is not an end in itself, but was undertaken for the specific purpose of describing the setting of the narrative material it contains:
At the heart of the Avaśyaka corpus lies the Niryukti (ĀvN.), in which the stories are referred to for the first time through key-words. The summary provided by the author (pp. 64-75) clearly shows that the ĀvN. is not merely a commentary on the sūtras but an independent, composite text in its own right. As the text of the AVN. has so far not been published separately - for convenience sake the version contained in Haribhadra's Țikā is treated as the vulgate — the author deserves our gratitude for her thorough study of it, including the presentation, by way of example, of a critical edition of the verses 128-139. Other issues raised in connection with the Niryukti are, among other things, the manuscript tradition in this connection two mss from Berlin and one from Paris are excerpted), the stratification of the AVN. (including a brief comparison between the Svetambara and Digambara versions), examples of amplifications in the text, its metre and its exegetical procedures.
The full texts of the stories and legend are found in the various commentaries on the Nijjutti, some of which comment upon the underlying sūtra text as well. As far as the narrative material is concerned, however, the main distinction seems to be between a versified stream, represented by the VisesaAvaśyakaBhāşya and its commentaries (Jinabhadra/Kotyārya, Koțyācārya (Leumann's Sil[ānka]) and Hemacandra Maladhārin), and a prose stream, represented by the Cūrņi, Haribhadra's Țikā and Malayagiri's Vị tti respectively. The versified tradition generally manifests a lesser interest in narratives than the prose tradition.
These commentaries do not form the limit of the Avaśyaka corpus, but are followed, directly or indirectly, by still later commentaries. From among these the author has singled out Tilakācārya's Laghuvị tti (thirteenth century) for its fresh and concise handling in Sanskrit of the original Prākrit stories, including an edition of a relevant selection of the stories from this commentary at the very end of the book.
From $7 onwards the book is more directly concerned with the stories. While the author's aim is in the first place to make accessible the

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stories published earlier by Leumann, Balbir's study clearly anticipates a larger project, namely the publication and translation of all Avaśyaka stories. This becomes clear from Annexe 3 (pp. 126-195/7), which provides a complete inventory of the narrative material found in this corpus, including such preliminary work as identifying parallel versions.
Before that the author has pointed out the exceptional status of the Āvaśyaka corpus within Jaina literature as far as the number of stories and legends is concerned. The popularity of this particular corpus is shown by the many references elsewhere to it as a whole (jahā Āvassae) or to specific chapters (jahā Sāmāie), and by the existence of collections of stories borrowed from this corpus (pp. 118-124). At the same time the reader is prepared for the laconic, rapid style of the stories. The author also discusses the differences between the treatment of those stories which are known from earlier, canonical, sources: the Cūrņi "repeats mechanically", resulting in the inclusion of passages in Amg. showing the heavy hieratical prose style; Haribhadra's Țikā "modernizes", i.e. removes passages in the pseudo-canonical style; and Malayagiri's Vị tti presents a mixture of the archaic style and the simple style known from Haribhadra. The ViśĀvBh. stands apart as the text is in verse. Among other things, the author also draws attention to indications in the texts which show that the stories were meant to be recited orally by a teacher to a live audience. The terms vibhāsā and carcă invite the teacher, if he or his listeners so wish, to expand the story with (standard) descriptions..
Part 2 is devoted to the translation of the stories edited earlier by Leumann, except for the texts found on pp. 46-8, which are part of the socalled Universal History, and which are anyhow incomplete, breaking off in the middle of a sentence. Leumann's edition, with all its problems of presentation, has been taken as the basis simply because there is no real, more economic alternative. Below Leumann's text are found the variants and other additional text material Balbir has culled from the printed editions which have become available after Leumann. In order not to overburden the variant readings she has refrained from doing so for the BỊ hatKalpaBhāsyaCũrni and -Tikā. "
The translations are introduced by an indication of the point the particular stories is meant to illustrate with reference to the key-words in the Niryukti. (However, not all stories are anticipated in this way.) Next, the texts of the different versions in Leumann's edition are identified (e.g. L 26. 24-33, i.e. p.26, lines 24-33) as well as the corresponding texts in the modern editions. This is followed by bibliographical references (studies, other translations, where available, etc.). The different versions (eg.

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Haribhadra and ViśĀvBh.) are translated separately. The translations are faithful, and reference to the Pkt text is easy. The translation is followed by a survey of parallels of the stories, which include written as well as oral (Kota) sources.
The combined efforts of Professor Balbir and Dr. Oberlies have admirably succeeded in opening up the story material originally edited by Leumann. The result is a pioneering work in the field of Jaina narrative literature. Moreover, Balbir has managed to level the difference in style and presentation which has evolved in Jaina studies between studies of scholastic aspects (e.g. Nikṣepa) and those of the "softer" subjects. Her study of the Avaśyaka corpus could well come to serve as a general introduction to the intricate ways in which exegetical literature absorbs and encapsulates the texts it explains. The usefulness of Oberlies's Glossar is clearly not restricted to the Leumann stories and may be used profitably in connection with other Pkt texts as well.
My previous attempts to go through Leumann's Erzählungen have all for various reasons and at various stages run aground. When, below, an interpretation of Balbir or Oberlies of a passage or a word is questioned it is because for the first time I have managed, ably guided, to read on and because for the first time there are interpretations to challenge.
Text and translation
p.268. Balbir translates rannā vi viviha-cintana-nān'āsarkāe bhiya-hiyaenam / pūy'atth'āmalae cciya avarāho se kao dhaniyam || (L 13. 18-19) as follows: "Le roi, que toutes sortes de soucis et de doutes inquiétaient, le punit sévèrement: s'était comme du myrobolan utilisé pour un culte". She admits, however, that the expression püy'atth'āmalae is problematic (see n. 109). Moreover, the dénouement of this version of the story would be completely opposite to that of the other ones, in which the king is satisfied by the work done by his minister and honours him accordingly (parituţtheņa sainvaddhaņā kayā, p.266, L 11. 27). As far as I see, however, the version under consideration can be made to toe the line if we start by translating the word avarāho literally, i.e. as "offence". After this the interpretation of the compound cannot be a problem: "The king [realized that] by his suspicions etc. he had seriously offended the minister (avarāho se kao dhaniyain), who in actual fact was as pure as gold (amalaka) in matters of honour (pūjā) and money (artha)."

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p.272. Balbir translates so ya varise varise cittijjai (L 14. 12) as "Chaque année, on peignait son portrait (my italics)". The version quoted on p.288 majjio jakkho ... ugghuttho ... dhavalio (L 13. 40-42) suggests instead that we have to do here with the repainting, yearly, of the idol of the yakşa (see also Leumann: "Ein Idol des jakkha Surappiya bei Sāeya musste alljährlich frisch bemalt werden", quoted on p.291). The remark on p.289 (n.156), that in the versions of the Cūrņi and Haribhadra it is not the idol which is bathed but the painter who took a bath, seems a matter of interpretation. It is quite well possible to supply a word for idol to serve as the object to ṇhāņetta in L 14. 33-34 (p.274). p.276. Before kharenam, as in esa khareņain na sakkai (L 16. 5), "[Mais] elle ne pouvait (se gagner] Pradyota par la force" (see also n. 130), is entered once and for all into the dictionaries, we should be absolutely certain that the possibilities of the regular meanings of khara- have indeed been exhausted. I doubt if this is the case. For instance: "(The queen, however, [realized that]) he (i.e. Pradyota) is not to be "conquered" by sharp words (which would only further upbraid him)". Instead, she starts working on his feelings and dispatches a messenger who is to inform Pradyota about her anxieties concernig the fate of her little son when she is no longer there to take care of him. p.288. . Balbir translates tao so te cittagare kharanțettă (L 14. 5) as "(Somadeva) fit la leçon au (autres) peintres". Considering that kharanţei means "to scold" (see Glossar, p.62, s.v.; related to kharaļai "to smear, dirty"?, CDIAL 3663), Balbir realizes that her translation is ambiguous. In n. 160 she queries the possibility that Somadeva is actually instructing the other painters on how in the future to deal with the yakşa. The following incidents in Somadeva's career, in which, after having been expelled, he shows himself a, vicious troublemaker, rather suggest we turn into the opposite direction: arrogant about his own success Somadeva is telling the other painters how stupid they are. p.318. Balbir admits that she is quite embarrassed by the term singiya in the phrase baillā singiyā (L 22. 13-14), which she translates with "Les boeufs ont été sélectionnés". The idea would be that the buffaloes had been marked for sale by placing something between their horns (singiya = śr ngita). In support of this interpretation she refers, in n.187, to the text

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The
on p.370: teņa tīse singe khapūlao baddho ... vikkiņāmi tti (L 33. 24), which passages, in its turn, would correspond to teņa sa tanassa ţhaveūņaṁ go-sainghāe pae ceva uvațshaviyā, quoted on p.368 (L 33. 39-40). However, a closer look at the last two passages shows that they have nothing to do with the situation described in the first one. The situation in the last two passages is quite clear: a man tries to sell a cow which is no longer of any use to him as it has become too weak to stand up (avikala referred to on p.369, n. 205, is simply a-vikala "not crippled"). If it does not stand, he cannot sell it. He nevertheless manages to make it stand up by tying fodder (khapūlao) between the horns. In its attempt to eat the animal will raise itself on its feet. The text of the version quoted on p.368 is highly elliptical, but clearly has to be understood in the same way: "He made it stand up (with the help] of grass, and brought it, while it walked on its own feet (pae ceva, rather than "the next morning"), to a go-saingha.
It will be clear that for the meaning of singiya we are thrown back entirely on the first passage (p.318, L 22. 13-14) and the parallel versions (p.320, L 22. 27-28: esa baille singei ... kaham ee singesi na tthäsinti, and L 22. 38: halā ajja mama ime baillā addha-singiyā āsi).
The only possibility I can conceive for the moment is to connect this verb with the word simga mentioned in Deśín. VIII 28 as a synonym of kr śa "weak, meagre" (see CDIAL 13387. I am not certain if simgaya mentioned in Deśin. VIII 31 "taruņa" is ultimately related as well). The fact that the "buffaloes are exhausted" (baillā singiyā, p.318, L 22. 13-14) seems anticipated by the reply the deaf man had given earlier to the travellers asking him which way to go: ghara-jāyagă majjha ee baillā, "These buffaloes are my slaves (gr ha-jāta-, 'with which I may therefore do what I want')". Malayagiri's versions, transcribed on p.318, is to be understood similarly.
The first part of the story as transmitted in BKBC and -T, and Kot (p.320) seems to take a completely different turn, which would go back to a misunderstanding of the meaning of ghara-jāyaga. The deaf man leaves with his buffaloes to plough the fields. However, the animals are already completely exhausted when they arrive there: mama ime baillā addhasingiyă åsi (L 22. 38), "My buffaloos here were already exhausted from the road (adhvan)" (äsi, "were"; he reports this to his wife much later, after the incident with the wayfarer). It is not made clear how the farmer dealt with this problem; the text is elliptical on this point. (Did he draw the plough himself?) When he is subsequently addressed by a wayfarer asking for directions, he thinks this person is telling him to drive the animals harder: "He thinks: this man wishes (me) to exhaust the buffaloes. There
nself?) When he his person is telling
the buffaloes. The

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upon he says: scoundrel, these buffaloos are mama ghare jāyagā (have been born in my own house and are like children to me), how can you wish (me) to exhaust them, they will not even be able to stand properly" (iyaro cintei: esa baille singei, tähe bhanai: are mama ghare jāyagā baillă, kaham ee singesi? na ṭṭhāsinti).
p.324.
The phrase usam (v.1. kharo) calya paḍau (L 23. 23 and 24. 2 (uso); see also khāro paḍau, p.330, L 25. 27) has been translated as "Puisse la potasse faire effet!" In the first occurrence "Till Eulenspiegel" is advised what to say when he again happens to meet washermen, but, true to his role, he mindlessly repeats his lesson to farmers who are sowing. This stupidity earns him a sound beating.
For information concerning the specific meaning assigned to paḍau here we look in vain in the Glossar, p. 105, s.v. paḍau to which we are referred (n.192). We clearly have a problem here, as the range of meanings of patati and its derivatives is actually very small. All meanings are directly related to the concrete meaning "to fall". "To fall to one's share" and "to fall from one's caste" are basically context-determined translations. In fact, in the second occurrence one would have expected to find a locative use: "May the seed fall on alkaline soil!" The effect of this is proverbial; see e.g. Răm. 2, 17, 31d: suniṣphalam bijam ivoptam uşare, and MBh. 13, 90, 37 yathoşare bijam uptam na rohet (Brockington, IT VII, 1, 1979, p.142). In the first occurrence this use would function as a nominative (AMg., ending in -e): "May potash fall (to your share easily)". Note in this connection that ūsa is apparently not found easily but has to brought to the surface: ūsakhaṇḍam nama yattha kassako kismici padese nangalena bhumim cattaro pañca vāre kasanto atigambhiram karoti tato usam uppajjati (PS I 154, 20-22, quoted in CPD II, pp.572, s.v. ūsa). p.332.
Following the printed editions Balbir suggests to emend gula- in gayan'angane gula-visale (L 26. 2) into guna- (see n.196), and translates "au firmament excellent". However, gula- would stand here for guḍa"globe, ball", which here refers to the globular, egg-shaped form of the sky.
p.332.
sähu-purisehi saddhim nigghaṭṭam kiramānam (L 26. 8) has been translated as "(Il vit qu') un rapprochement se faisait grâce à l'entremise de gens bien intentionnés". This translation involves the ad hoc meaning "rapprochement" ("close connection", Glossar, p.96, s.v.) for the otherwise rare word

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nigghatta. The word has been tentatively connected with nirghata, "dichtgefüllter Marktplatz". By way of alternative I venture to suggest a connection with the verb ghattayati, as found in Balacarita I 4 cd, ahaṁ hi vedādhyayanántareşu tantris ca vairāņi ca ghattayāmi. (The passage and its relationship to HV 46, 30 cd: ghatayāno [v.1. ghattayāno] narendrānāṁ tantrivairāņi caiva ha, are discussed by A. Couture in BEI 10 1992 (1994), p. 117). For nigghasța this suggests a meaning "[a state) in which all situations which might lead (again) to hostilities have been removed". In this connection I would also like to draw attention to the variant reading kīramāṇin found in Kotyācārya's commentary (Tatia and Ratlam). This variant seems to reflect an original reading samdhim (for fem. saindhi, see, e.g., Jacobi Ausgewählte Erzählungen in Māhārāștri, p.39, 1. 34): "(He saw that) a peace treaty was being made ... by [the intervention of] good men". nigghattam, then, functions as an adjective to samdhim and stresses the thoroughness of the efforts to establish peace. All these efforts, however, are wasted the very moment that the blunderer Till Eulenspeigel enters upon the scene! p.340. appasāriyain in gharain appasăriyam (v.1. appasāgariyam) atãi (L 27. 45, cf. p.342), "Il pénètre discrètement chez lui", is almost certainly a syncopated form of appasāgāriyain (see Glossar, pp.21-2, s.v.; see also p.52, n.72, where Balbir mentions an instance of this syncopation in progress). While the meaning of sāgāriya (from svāgāra) has been fairly well established ("the duties of the householder" see, e.g., R. Williams, Jaina Yoga, p 210, W. Schübring, Acāranga, Glossar, p. 106, s.v. "mehuņa", . showing that the duties are of a sexual nature), the word appasā (gā)riya has produced considerable embarrassment. This embarassment is mainly caused by the current interpretation of appa, which is equated with Skt alpa. This, incidentally, led to the isolation of a word sāgāriya meaning "(männliches oder weibliches) Wesen" (see n. 17 on p.21 of the Glossar), which has obviously been extrapolated from appasāgāriya taken as referring to a place in which such beings are few (alpa) in number. It is this latter meaning which has been assigned to our word appasāriyam: "privately, secretly" (see Glossar, where the word is derived from a nonexistent a-prasārika). As far as I see, however, appa in appasā (gā)riya has nothing to do with alpa but represents ātma. appasă (gā)riya would mean "a place where one may stay as if it is one's own house". The compound may be compared with sattāgāra, which is usually translated as "lodgings", in which sva and ātma (atta) have changed places.

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Unfortunately, I am unable to check this meaning as most of the texts in which the instances quoted by Oberlies were found are not available to me. One exception is DaśavC. 50-1. The passage concerned describes three tests to which Śreņika is subjected by a god who questioned the praise Indra showered on this king. In the second test the god assumed the form of a pāhaditiyāsainjati and in this form appeared before Sreņika. Not all words in the text are clear and this applies in particular to pāhaditiya. The editor glossses the word with garbhiņi "pregnant", but this is clearly merely a . guess; cf. his gloss for ņikketijjaintie (from nişketa), "prasuvatyä"! The text proceeds as follows: tai ovvarae paveseūnań ņikketijjartie appasāgāriyanimittain sayain cetthati, "He allowed her to enter his harem (ovvarae, cf. Skt urvarī and Pāli ubbari) and in this way he personally provided that woman, who was without a house, with a place where she could stay as if it were her own house". Returning to the passage under consideration, gharam appasäriyam atīi, we should remember that the subject of the sentence is a thief coming home: "he sneaked into his house, (not, as the sneaking, might suggest, another man's house but] his very own". p.334. It is not clear to me why tāe să(b)hinnänam pattiyāvio (L 26. 30), "Sa femme lui redonna confiance en portant à sa connaissance [la vérité]", has not been translated regularly as "She convinced him by showing tokens of recognition" (teethmarks etc., proving to him that she was the same woman as the one he had made love to the night before)? p.404. putthā vi ņa duddha-yā vajjhā (Višesh. I 1457), "Même si elle est bien nourrie, une vache stérile ne donne pas de lait". Balbir derives puttha from pușta, not from spr şta, as is done in the commentaries (see n.279). Though this is not explicitly said, the argument will have been that spr sta would regularly have become phutha (see WZKS 31, 1987, p.201). However, the reality is different: as far as the canon is concerned, the regular form is puttha (e.g. Acāränga [Schübring), p.4. 10). p.424. Balbir translates mandi in mandie duddhan (L 42. 20 and 43. 5) as "pot": "[Soit] du lait qu'on a mis dans un pot" (see also Glossar, p.130, s.v.). The cat turns over the pot with its paw and most of the milk is spilled in the attempt to drink it. The hedgehog, however, drinks carefully from the sides (pāsāņi sainlihai) and not a drop is wasted. While mandi is not found in Skt, there is, given the situation in NIA described in CDIAL 9735, no

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compelling reason to regard it as anything else than a synonym of manda. It would appear that manda could denote the cream of the milk as well as the watery part (cf. dadhi-manda) or the foam or froth floating on top of the milk. mandie duddham could by way of alternative be translated with "milk floating in whey" or with "milk in the midst of/covered with froth". The latter interpretation, "milk covered with froth", explains why the method of the hedgehog is so succesful: it starts drinking from the side where the froth is thin and the milk is easily reached. Drinkers of beer will immediately understand what is meant. The cat starts in the middle, trying to remove the froth with its paw, as a result of which the milk becomes dirty and a lot of it is spilled. tatth'eva in tatth'eva na pibai (L 42. 20) would consequently not mean "in there, i.e. in the pot" but "under these circumstances" or "there and then". p.436. kuttei in mā evain kuttehi (L 45. 4) and ... alavae ... annahā kuttento (L 45. 25) has been derived from kirtayati (see Glossar, p.57, s.v.) and translated with "to recite". It is not clear to me why the possibilities of the verb kuttayati "to crush, to cut into small pieces, etc." have not been further explored here, especially as elsewhere we come accross evain jo siso ālāvagain viccāmelento ("making a mess of it") āyariehim bhaņio (L 44. 24-25).
Glossar
The glossary contains a selection of only the more difficult and rarer words occurring in the stories. This involves an obvious risk as probably every reader would require his or her own dictionary. Thus, I have been unable to trace cunniya "nose ring" (p.336) and sampāņa "liquid" (p.414, L 41. 46). What is more, the glossary is restricted to the text of Leumann's edition and does not include the passages of texts and the variants supplied in addition by Balbir. This explains why, for instance, cunniya is not included. The same fate was suffered by vaccāmelei referred to below. However, this is only a slight inconvenience and it is amply compensated by the wealth of information provided with each item which is included. This information covers derivations, references to the relevant secondary literature and references to occurrences of the words in other texts. Below a few remarks mainly concerning technical points.
The reader who reads the stories from beginning to end would benefit from a separate item niddhādei (p.248, L 9. 37) beside dhādei which occurs only on p.258 (L 12. 19). The same applies to vaccāmielei (p.434,

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additional text edited for the first time by Balbir) beside viccāmelei which occurs only on p.438 (L. 44. 25). As already noted in the case of padau the connection between the translation and the glossary is not always perfect. Sometimes it is a matter of different interpretations. A case in point concerns the phrase thāiūņain vibhāe (p.332, L 26. 15), which Balbir translates with "en aparte ... en se couvrant (la bouche]" (i.e. thăiūnai from sthagayati), while Oberlies derives thāiūnain from sthālthăi (see p.81, s.v. thai): thāiūņain vibhāe (vgl. skt. vibhāgena "abgesondert") "an (jmds] Seite stehend". More problematic is the case of padiņiyayāe (p.338, L 27. 37 and p.342), which word Oberlies derives from prati-anika) "hostile" (p.105), but which Balbir translates, without any explanation as to its derivation, with "sollicité". At vara-dinna(ga) (p.144) a reference to saingara-dinnaya (p.156) might have been helpful. Note 180 on p.162, in which it has been suggested to derive säravei from säramaya had better be deleted as the supposed development of -m-to-- is generally conditioned by the presence of another nasal (see O. von Hinüber, Übersicht $$210-1 and in particular Brough GDhP 836 quoted there).
Herman Tieken
WALTER BISANG: Das Verb im Chinesischen, Hmong, Vietnamesischen, Thai und Khmer. Vergleichende Grammatik im Rahmen der Verbserialisierung, der Grammatikalisierung und der Attraktorpositionen. Language Universals Series. Edited by Hansjakob Seiler. Volume 7. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, 1992. x, 524 pp.
Linguistic research in East Asian languages is still a neglected field in German speaking countries, the scarcity of comparative studies on them is even more obvious. Against this background the voluminous work under discussion promises to be recognized sooner or later not only as a landmark for research in this area, but also as an important international contribution to better understanding of the structure and historical development of a wide tange of languages in East Asia, more or less related to the five languages analyzed here. This work might also promote the discussion of language universals in connection with verb serialization. In any case it is worthwhile and necessary to introduce it to a wider interested public within and also outside Europe, especially since it is written in German as it was accepted as a doctoral thesis at the University of Zürich in 1990/91.
The author has chosen these five languages because he has had the chance during his academic career to study and partly practise them and, at

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the same time, to do intensive research on their historical development. The wide range of specialized references found in the bibliography and in the relevant chapters is indeed impressive. It gives evidence of the author's unremitting ability to collect, analyze and select almost all essential data over years. He proves himself not only to have been thoroughly acquainted with the present structures and usages of these five languages, but also with the earlier stages and the main connections and tendencies during the evolution of certain phenomena in each one of them. As an expert in comparative linguistics, he does not hesitate to present his own hypothesis and frank speculation on how lexico-grammatical and funcional relations might have developed in earlier history. In this way and considering the overall view this tremendous work has adopted and inspite of the very detailed analysis and exemplification in all important cases, it conveys an. impression which contrasts refreshingly with the narrowly viewed and laboured works typically found in the tradition of each single philology.
The reason for choosing this object of research is, in the author's own words, his discovery of "the ease and frequency by which verbs or verbal phrases in languages like Chinese, Hmong, Vietnamese, Thai and Khmer can be positioned next to each other" (p. 1). The verb serialization is described as an essential part of the typology of these languages which in fact are distributed among the three different language groups of SinoTibetian (Chinese), Austro-Tai (Thai and Hmong, - Nevertheless, there is some doubt to be cast on the classification of Hmong which belongs to the Miao-Yao languages) and Austro-Asiatic (Vietnamese and Khmer, belonging to the Mon-Khmer branch). The surprising fact that these five languages all display similar structural functions is explained by their cultural and linguistic contact with each other over many centuries. According to their individual characteristics the author distinguishes a northern group, represented by Chinese, and a southern group represented by Vietnamese, Thai and Khmer. Hmong takes up a position in between, according to its geographic distribution.
The main part of the book presents a great variety of verb serialization in surface structure considered separately in each language in order to work out the main types of verb sequences and to discover the linguistic forces by which they are built up as well as their mutual relationships, and, finally, to track down the motivation and communicative value of verb serialization. This last aspect is the strong point of the study, the author has succeded in working out the general functional relationships rather than purely listing typological patterns. Especially in Chinese where enough written material is available since the early stages of the language, the

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INHALTSÜBERSICHT / TABLE DES MATIÈRES
1013
1039
1043 1069
1097
ETIENNE BOURGNON: Dieu, l'univers et l'homme dans
l'enseignement de Mâ Ananda Moyî . .... JOHANNES BRONKHORST: A note on zero and the numerical
place-value system in Ancient India ........... MAYA BURGER: Kabir et la répétition du nom de Rama -
réalisation spirituelle et mémoire de Dieu ........ RICHARD GOMBRICH: The Buddha and the Jains. ..... PETER HOFFMANN: Die Freude der Fische, oder vom Spiel
der Worte....................... ISO KERN: Die Umwandlung und Zweideutigkeit von Wang Yang
mings Begriff des "Ursprünglichen Wissens" (liang zhi) CHRISTOPH LANGEMANN: Versuch über die ostasiatische Lyrik . . .
. . .
::::..... CHRISTIAN LINDTNER: Sumati's Subhāşitávali....... AXEL MICHAELS: The legislation of widow burning in 19th
century Nepal ..................... TILMANN VETTER: On the origin of Mahāyāna Buddhism and
the subsequent introduction of Prajñāpāramitā . .....
1119
1143 1177
1213
1241
MONTE VERITÀ
MONTE VERITA.....................
1283 ROLAND ALTENBURGER: Anrede und Selbstbezeichnung im
Spiegel der chinesischen Romanliteratur des 18. Jh..... 1285 ULRIKE JANETT-BACHNER: Õe Kenzaburô: Jinsei no shinseki
Überlegungen zu einem Roman ............. 1291 ANDREAS BIGGER: Balarāma im Mahābhārata ..
1297 TERESA BIGON: The interpretation of Ajñeya's short-stories in
the light of rasa-theory ................. 1301 PETER BUCHMANN: Zur Stellung der Nachkommen
koreanischer Einwanderer in Japan. ........... 1307 MARIANNE CHENOU: Ein Vergleich zwischen den Makamen al-Hamadhānis und al-Hariris'.
1313 TANJA DUNCKER: Zwei kurdische Nationaldichter: Ehmedê
Xanî und Cigerxwîn................... 1319 CHRISTINE GROSS: Frauenleitbilder in Japan zwischen 1917
und Mitte der Dreissiger Jahre .............. 1325

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KAE ITO: Amae-Psychologie: Ein japanischer Beitrag zur Psychoanalyse
JAYDEV JANI: The Sanskrit literary tradition of the Swami Narayana Movement . .
CHRISTINE KÜHNE: Die verlorene Mitte: Mundart (Xiangyin). ein Gedicht des chinesischen Lyrikers Bei Dao BARBARA MESSERLI: Feuervergoldung in Nepal FRANZISKA OSOLIN: Helvetische Szenen aus Kanton Photographien und Texte 1897-1939
YVES RAMSEIER: Bhartr hari et la Nescience KARIN REBER AMMANN: Manšå Yåd Leben und Werk DANIEL REICHLIN: Auswirkungen des Ölschock im Japan der siebziger Jahre.
GUDRUN SCHUBERT, RENATE WÜRSCH: Aḥmad b. 'Abdallah al-Qirimi, ein Verteidiger Ibn al-'Arabis gegen die Orthodoxie
TORU TOMABECHI: La formation textuelle du Pañcakrama
ANNETTE WILKE: Meister Eckhart und Samkara. MONIKA WINET: Die arabischen Verben aşbaḥa und amsă und ihre Projektion in die Iberoromania
NICOLAS ZUFFEREY: Wang Chong et les ru sous les Han Problèmes de terminologie et de méthode
NOTIZ/NOTICE
GREGOR SCHOELER, GUDRUN SCHUBERT: 75 Jahre Orientalisches Seminar, 100 Jahre Islamwissenschaft an der Universität Basel
BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN/COMPTES RENDUES
NALINI BALBIR: Avasyaka-Studien, Introduction générale et Traductions.
THOMAS OBERLIES: Avaśyaka-Studien, Glossar ausgewählter Wörter zu E. Leumanns "Die Avasyaka-Erzählungen"
1331
1337
1341
1351
1357
1363
1369
1375
1379
1383
1389
1397
1403
1409
1415
1415

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1425 1432 1437 WALTER BISANG: Das Verb im Chinesischen, Hmong, Vietnamesischen, Thai und Khmer. Vergleichende Grammatik im Rahmen der Verbserialisierung, der Grammatikalisierung und der Attraktorpositionen ............... ESS, HANS VAN: Politik und Gelehrsamkeit in der Zeit der Han (202 v. Chr.-220 n. Chr.): die Alttext/Neutext-Kontroverse. MICHEL HULIN: Qu'est-ce que l'ignorance metaphysique (dans la pensee hindoue)? Sainkara . .............. THE JADE STUDIO: MASTERPIECES OF MING AND QING PAINTING AND CALLIGRAPHY FROM THE WONG NAN-P'ING COLLECTION . KEUN LEE: New East Asian Economic Development, Interacting Capitalism and Socialism . ............... GAIL OMVEDT: Reinventing Revolution. New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India. ........... HEINRICH ZIMMER, COMING INTO HIS OWN. Margaret H. Case (ed). ................. 1438 1440 1442 1445