Book Reviews

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

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REVIEWS
Tibetan Tripitaka, Sde dge edition, Bstan hgyur. Dbu ma. Compiled and edited by K. Hayashima, J. Takasaki, Z. Yamaguchi and Y. Ejima with table of contents and bibliographical notes. Published by the Sekai Seiten Kanko Kyokai Co. Ltd. for the Faculty of Letters, University of Tokyo. 1977-Price per volume Yen 8.000.
The Department of Indian Philosophy and Indian Literature of the University of Tokyo has undertaken to publish a photomechanical reprint of the Derge Tanjur. The first section to be published is the Dbu ma (Madhyamaka) section which comprises seventeen volumes. Each volume of the reprint contains one volume of the blockprint. Two folios (four pages) are reproduced on one page. The number of the text in the Tohoku Catalogue of the Derge Tripitaka (Sendai, 1934; sec. ed., Tokyo, 1970) is indicated in the margin. Roman figures in the margin refer to the numbers of the chapters of a work. On the top of the page the folio numbers are given. The size of the pages is 210 x 296 mm. Each volume is bound in blue and carries on the spine the number of the volume: Sde dge TIBETAN TRIPITAKA Bstan hgyur dbu ma 1, etc.
The editors of this reprint have added to each volume a detailed table of contents containing the number of the text, the Tibetan title, the Sanskrit title, a Japanese rendering of the title, the names of the author, the translator(s) and the reviser(s), and the titles of the chapters in Tibetan and Japanese, and in Sanskrit if the work is available in Sanskrit. The table of contents of each text is followed by a detailed bibliography divided into five sections: 1. Editions of the original Sanskrit text; 2. Editions of the Tibetan version; 3. The Chinese version (number and title in the Taisho Daizõkyo); 4. Related works such as commentaries in the Tibetan and Chinese Tripitaka; 5. A selection of modern translations and textual studies.
The bibliographical notes will be extremely welcome to scholars, especially to those in the West, who experience great difficulties in being informed about the work done by Japanese scholars. Madhyamaka philosophy has attracted the attention of many Japanese scholars, and the number of Japanese publications mentioned in the eleven volumes published so far is impressive. The bibliographical information contained in the first four sections is meant to be exhaustive. Very little seems to have escaped the editors. Volume one contains the Tibetan translation of Buddhapalita's Mülamadhyamakavștti. No mention is made of Tachikawa Musashi's critical edition of the first part of chapter 2 (verses 1-6) on the basis of the Peking, Derge and Narthang editions: 'A Study of Buddhapālita's Mulamadhyamakavrtti (1)', Nagoya daigaku bungaku-bu kenkyū ronshū 63 (1974), pp. 16-18. Tachikawa's article contains also an. English translation of the same section (pp. 2-8). Hirano's article on the relation between the Akutobhayā and Buddhapalita's commentary is mentioned in the bibliographical notes on the Akutobhayā but no reference to it is found in the bibliographical notes on Buddhapalitā's commentary. Volume seven contains the Tibetan translation of the Prasannapada (pp. 1-100, ff. 1-200b). Chapter Twenty-seven ends on f. 19865. Then follow fourteen verses (f. 198b5200a3). The Sanskrit text of these verses is missing in the manuscripts used by de La Vallée Poussin for his edition (Bibliotheca Buddhica, IV), but it is found in a manuscript discovered by Professor Tucci. The Sanskrit text and the Tibetan translation were published in 1962: 'La Madhyamakaśāstrastuti de Candrakirti', Oriens Extremus 9, pp. 47-56. In one instance the information given by the editors is not entirely correct. Volume 11 contains Vibhūticandra's commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Ejima writes: "At the beginning of this commentary (193a3-1943) a biography of Santideva is introduced. For the first time Ejima drew attention to this fact in his article (5) - 1 and assumed that this biography is based on a text which is very similar to the Nepalese Sanskrit manuscript reported by Haraprasad Šāstri." However, Ejima's article does not contain any indication that this biography is based on a text which is very similar to the Nepalese Sanskrit manuscript. In his article Ejima wrote: "If it (this biography) has been inserted by the author himself, then it will be even older than the old biography of the fourteenth century reported by H. P. Shastri" (moshi kore ga chosha jishin no kakageta mono de aru to sureba, H. P. Shastri ni yotte hökoku-sareta jushi seiki no kodenki