Book Reviews

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

Page 11

REVIEWS
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Hilko Wiardo Schomerus, Arunantis Sivajñanasiddhiyar. Die Erlangung des Wissens um Siva oder um die Erlösung. Unter Beifügung einer Einleitung und Meykantadevas Sivajñanabodha aus dem Tamil übersetzt und kommentiert. Herausgegeben von Hermann Berger, Ayyadurai Dhamotharan und Dieter B. Kapp (Beiträge zur Südasien-Forschung, Südasien-Institut, Universität Heidelberg. Band 49a und 49b). Wiesbaden, Franz Steiner Verlag GmbH., 1981. Band I, XVI, 386, 386a, 386b pp. Band II, 387-745 pp. DM 128,
The translation of Arunantis Sivajñānasiddhiyar by H. W. Schomerus was found among his manuscripts and was handed over to the editors by his son, J. G. Schomerus. In the preface the editors explain that it was not possible to revise the manuscript critically in the light of the Tamil text and to take into account recent publications. Dr. Dhamotharan has verified all difficult Tamil words. Professor D. H.-W. Gensichen has contributed a brief note on H. W. Schomerus (1879-1945). Schomerus arrived in India as a missionary in 1902 and he remained there until 1912. In 1925 he was appointed to the chair of 'Missionswissenschaft' in Halle. In 1912 H. W. Schomerus published a book on the Saiva-Siddhānta: Der Çaiva-Siddhanta, eine Mystik Indiens. Nach den tamulischen Quellen bearbeitet und dargestellt (Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs'sche Buchhandlung). One of his main sources was Arunantis Sivajñānasiddhiyār (SJS). The SJS consists of two parts, the sva paksa which explains the doctrinal system of the author, and the para paksa in which he refutes fourteen doctrines: 1. Lokayatika; 2-5. Four Buddhist schools: Sauträntika, Yogācāra, Madhyamika and Vaibhāșika; 6. Nirgrantha; 7. Ajīvaka; 8. Bhättācārya; 9. Prabhākara; 10. Sabdabrahmavādin; 11. Māyāvādin; 12. Bhāskara; 13. Nirisvara-samkhya; 14. Pancarätrin. The SJS is itself a commentary on the Sivajñānabodha by Meykantadeva, the teacher of Arunanti. The Sivajñānabodha is a short treatise in the form of a commentary on twelve Sanskrit sūtras from the Rauravāgama, and is the first of the fourteen canonical treatises of the Saivasiddhānta. Schomerus has added a translation of the Sivajñānabodha (pp. 21--38).
In his Çaiva-Siddhanta Schomerus lists translations of both the Sivajñānabodha and the SJS. The latter was first translated by J. M. Nallaswami Pillai, who also wrote a book entitled: Studies in Saiva Siddhanta (Madras, 1911; Dharmapuram, 1962). His translation was first published in the journal Siddhanta Dipikā and later as a book, Sivajñana Siddhiyar of Arunadi Sivacharya (Madras, 1913).
According to the tradition, Arunanti lived in the middle of the thirteenth century. His work is written in the form of stanzas of four lines each. Schomerus does not give a consecutive numbering of the stanzas. According to Pjatigorksij, the total number of stanzas is 629, of which 301 belong to the parapak sa. The stanzas are often difficult to understand without the help of commentaries. For the sva paksa Schomerus used the commentary of Sivajñānayogi and for the para paksa that of Tattvaprakasar. Other commentaries on the SJS were studied by V. A: Devasenapathi in his book, Saiva Siddhanta, as Expounded in the Siva-jñana-Siddhiyar and its Six Commentaries (Madras, 1966). Schomerus's translation of the stanzas is followed by lengthy notes which combine information found in the commentary with explanations given by the translator. It is not possible to discover in this way which information is found in the commentary. Perhaps it would not have been useful to translate the commentary in its entirety, but one would have liked to see at least an example of the way in which the commentary explains the stanzas. Moreover, the commentaries are also important because they refer to the Sanskrit á gamas of the Saivadarsana. Mme Helene Brunner points out that in the sixteenth century the commentators on the SJS made great use of the agamas for their treatises and in order to refute their adversaries.2 The special importance of the para paksa was realised very early in the history of Tamil studies. Karl Graul (1814-1864) translated the sections on the Buddhist schools. The section on the Ajīvakas was used by A. L. Basham in his book, History and Doctrines of the Ajivakas (London, 1951). A. M. Pjatigorskij analysed and translated the section on the Lokāyata school.4 Recently Muneo Tokunaga studied and translated the section on the Pancarätra. It is to be hoped that the publication of this voluminous work by
Indo-Iranian Journal 28 (1985).