Reviews Of Diffeent Books

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

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REVIEWS
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renouncer communities of the two schools was a symbol of a deep doctrinal division.
The debate on the liriga of the renouncer was carried on by appealing to the authority of śruti and smrti. Olivelle studies the problems which arose in this connection regarding the distinction between authentic Vedic or smrti texts and spurious texts. He examines the hermeneutical principles applied by the pandits and the criteria for the authenticity of Vedic and smrti texts.
Olivelle shows very well the importance of this debate not only for understanding the status of the renouncer according to the two Vedānta schools, but also for the problem of determining the authenticity of Vedic smrti texts.
Volume one contains the text and translation of the Advaita texts: Šamkara's commentary on Bịhadāranyaka Upanişad 3.5.1, Anandānubhava's Nyāyaratnadīpāvali, Madhava's Pārāśaramādhavīya and the Pañcamāśramavidhāna. The Pancamāśramavidhāna is edited by Olivelle on the basis of seven manuscripts. Volume two comprises the following Viśistādvaita texts: Linganirūpana, the third chapter of Yadavaprakāśa's Yatidharmasamuccaya, the Sätyāyaniya Upanişad, one of the Samnyāsa Upanişads edited by F. O. Schrader (Madras, 1912) and studied by J. F. Sprockhoff (Samnyāsa, Wiesbaden, 1976), the Yatilingasamarthana, the tenth chapter of Varada's Śrībhāsyaprameyamālā, and two chapters of Vedānta Desika's Satadūşani, the Yatilingabhedabhangavāda and the Alepakamatabhangavāda. The Yatilingasamarthana is edited by Olivelle on the basis of eleven manuscripts and one printed edition. A manuscript of the text had been used by Sprockhoff (cf. op. cit., p. 269, n. 18).
Almost all the texts are translated for the first time by Olivelle. On p. 23 he states that the Satyāyaniya Upanisad is translated here for the first time but in the notes to his translation he refers to Ramanathan's translation: The Samnyāsa Upanişad-s (on renunciation). Tr. A. A. Ramanathan. Madras, 1978 (cf. vol. 1, p. 13). The editions used by Olivelle are listed in the bibliography which, however, does not mention the edition of Vedānta Desika's Satadūsani used by him.
Olivelle's translations are done with great care and only in very rare instances would one like to suggest a different rendering. In volume one on p. 88 (phrase 41) Olivelle has omitted to translate esanātvāc, and on p. 102 (phrase 21) asutra, cf. Sprockhoff p. 71: asūtrodarapātrah" (er ist) ohne Opferschnur, (er hat) den Bauch als Gefäss." On p. 102 Olivelle translates yatkimcin nädyāt as “let him not eat anything else" instead of "let him not eat anything whatsoever." Olivelle notes that the reading here is quite