Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 17

REVIEWS
243
As far as I know, only one chapter of the GST has previously been translated, and that only in part, viz. ch. VII (1-13, 28-38) by Professor David L. Snellgrove in Buddhist Texts through the Ages (ed. E. Conze), Oxford 1954, pp. 221-224.
The author of the present volume is Professor Alex Wayman of Columbia University, New York. In the Preface, he calls it a "modest incursion into the vast Guhyasamāja lore" (p. viii). In fact it is a far-ranging study of the Buddhist tantras, based not only on the GST itself, but above all upon the vast commentarial literature in Sanskrit as well as Tibetan.
The Buddhist tantras present an intricate and difficult field of study, as anyone who has attempted to penetrate even a small sector of this vast literature will be painfully aware. Before proceeding, I would like to express my admiration for Professor Wayman's courage in attempting to present a broad survey of the basic ideas of the GST and for his learning which enables him to make extensive use of the Tibetan commentarial literature, particularly the works of Tsongkhapa. If in the following I will feel obliged to make a number of critical observations, this is only a token of the attention with which I feel his book deserves to be studied.
The book as a whole may, I feel, be regarded as a commentary or exegesis of the GST. However, it may be helpful if the textual material which is included in the book and on which it is based, is briefly surveyed. I. GST (a) ch. VI and ch. XII in extenso (translation only), pp. 23-35 (VI, 3-6 also pp.
169-170). (6) Other verses cited and translated from the GST, text emended by Wayman with
the help of the Pradipoddyotana (see below) and the Tibetan translation. A list of these verses may be helpful for readers, all the more so as Wayman's references sometimes are to the verses and sometimes only to the page of Bhattacharya's edition (in which the verses are not numbered). Below, all verses have been identified and numbered according to Matsunaga's edition. Reference to Wayman is given in parentheses. 1,4 (244); II,3 (280); III,12 (217); IV,3 (193), 9 (133), 19-21 (303-4); V,9 (307); VII, 14 (252), 33 (265), 34 (286), 35 (188); VIII, 14-15 (258); IX,14 (263), 21 (309); X,9 (249); XI,30 (255), 35 (257), 37 (256), 40-44 (282-83); XII,16 (250); XIII, 26 (292), 56 (248); XIV,39-40 (327); XV.13 (323), 22 (341), 32-34 (236-237), 125 (256), 135 (333); XVI,33 (290), 41 (292), 61 (308), 66-67 (201), 87-88 (291), 89-90 (259-60), 94 (260), 97 (358); XVII,37 (270), 50 (229), 51 (234), 62 (265), 67 (259), 72-75 (299300); XVIII, 24 (164), 25-31 (139-40), 32 (299), 39 (285), 45-47 (207-8), 69 (293), 77-78 (288), 84 (142), 107 (218), 111-112 (146), 131 (323), 135136 (156), 137 (156), 162 (290). The Pradipoddyotana (hereafter: PU), a commentary by Candrakīrti on the GST: a passage commenting on GST XII, 60-64, pp. 35-50, containing: (i) Sanskrit text, edited on the basis of an unpublished ms. belonging to the K. P. Jayaswal Institute, Patna;
(i) English translation. (b) Frequent quotations from this ms. of the PU, often embodying passages from
other texts which otherwise only exist in Tibetan translation, e.g. the Vajrosnisatantra, the Samdhivya karana, the Devendrapariprcchā, etc., always with Sanskrit
text and English translation. III. A collection of forty verses, each commenting on a syllable of the nidāna-formula
at the outset of the GST (i.e. evam mayā śrutam ekasmin samaye bhagavān sarvatathāgatakāyavākcittahrdayavajrayosidbhageşu vijahāra). The verses are originally to be found in a commentary on the GST, styled Vajramālā (hereafter: VM); as the original Sanskrit version of the VM is lost, the verses have been excerpted from quotations of the VM in the PU, as well as from the Tibetan translation of the VM in the Tanjur. The Sanskrit and the Tibetan text, with translation, is given on pp. 1-22. The collection of verses is given the title