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REVIEWS
Helmuth von Glasenapp, Ausgewählte kleine Schriften. Herausgegeben von Heinz Bechert und Volker Moeller. Mit einem Nachtrag zur Helmuth von Glasenapp Bibliographie von Zoltán Károlyi (Glasenapp-Stiftung, Band 18). Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH., 1980. XIV, 557 pp. DM 74. -.
Helmuth von Glasenapp (8.9.1891 -25.6.1963) published in 1915 his first book, Die Lehre vom Karman in der Philosophie der Jainas nach den Karmagranthas dargestellt. His last book, Meine Lebensreise, was published posthumously in 1964. A detailed bibliography of all his writings was published by Zoltán Károlyi in 1968 as the second volume of the GlasenappStiftung (cf. IIJ 14, pp. 255-256). Many of his books have been regularly reprinted, but his articles can only be found in major libraries. Thirteen articles and one independent publication (Von Buddha zu Gandhi. Tübingen, 1934) were reprinted in 1962 as a tribute to von Glasenapp on the occasion of his seventieth birthday. This volume contains only a small selection of his work. It is therefore greatly to be welcomed that another and larger selection has now been published by the Glasenapp-Stiftung. Both volumes complement each other and for this reason it seems appropriate to include also Von Buddha zu Gandhi in this review as it has not been announced previously in the IIJ.
The Kleine Schriften reprints twelve articles and five independent publications: Die Lehre vom Karman in der Philosophie der Jainas, nach den Karmagranthas dargestellt (Leipzig, 1915); Religiöse Reformbewegungen im heutigen Indien (Leipzig, 1928); Indien in der Dichtung und Forschung des deutschen Ostens (Königsberg, 1930); Vedānta und Buddhismus (Wiesbaden, 1950); Zwei philosophische Rāmāyanas (Wiesbaden, 1951). Particularly welcome is the reprint of von Glasenapp's dissertation, which explains the very complicated Jaina doctrine on karman. The detailed index of technical terms is extremely useful. In his study on the two philosophical Rāmāyanas von Glasenapp analyses two works, the Yogavasistha-Rāmāyana and the AdhyātmaRāmāyana, to which little attention had been paid in the West, although they have enjoyed great popularity in India. It is one of the great merits of von Glasenapp's work that his studies extended to relatively neglected areas of research. In this connection mention must be made of four articles reprinted in Von Buddha zu Gandhi: Das Trisastilaksanamahāpurāna der Digambaras (first published in 1926 in the Festgabe Jacobi), Uber vier purānische Nachbildungen der Bhagavadgitā (first published in 1927 in the Festgabe Garbe), Lehrsätze des dualistischen Vedānta (Madhvas Tattvasamkhyāna) (first published in 1916 in the Ernst Kuhn volume) and Die Lehre Vallabhācāryas (ZII 9, 1933-1934, pp. 268-330). The article on Madhva was followed by a detailed study of Madhva's philosophy: Madhva's Philosophie des VishnuGlaubens (Bonn u. Leipzig, 1923).
Von Buddha zu Gandhi, in which von Glasenapp's publications are arranged systematically, contains eight articles on Buddhism. In 'Zur Geschichte der buddhistischen Dharma-Theorie (ZDMG 92, 1938, pp. 383-420) von Glasenapp tried to prove that the dharma doctrine was already found in early Buddhism (cf. also his Nachwort to the 13th edition of Oldenberg's Buddha, Stuttgart, 1959, pp. 477-484). Even if one cannot accept his theory, his article certainly remains worth reading. In the Kleine Schriften his article on the origin of the dharma theory is reprinted (WZKM 46, 1939, pp. 242-266). The same volume contains two articles relating to Tantrism: Tantrismus und Saktismus (OAZ, N.F. 12, 1936, pp. 120-133); Ein buddhistischer Initiationsritus des javanischen Mittelalters (Tribus, N.F. 43, 1952/1953, pp. 259-274). One regrets that his article on the origin of the Vajrayāna (ZDMG 90, 1936, pp. 546-572) has not been reprinted likewise. Von Glasenapp has always paid much attention to the relations between Indian religions, cf. 'Jaina-Buddhist parallels as an auxiliary to the elucidation of early Buddhism' (first published in the Belvalkar Felicitation Volume, Banaras, 1957), 'Der Buddhismus in der Vorstellungswelt der Hindus' (first published in 1954 in the Festschrift Weller) and 'Die Polemik der Buddhisten und Brahmanen gegen die Jainas' (first published in 1951 in the Schubring Festschrift). The first two are reprinted in Von Buddha zu Gāndhi, the last one in the Kleine Schriften.
