Reviews Of Diffeent Books

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

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REVIEWS
Carol Meadows, Arya-Sura's Compendium of the Perfections: Text, translation and analysis of the Paramitäsamāsa (Indica et Tibetica 8). Bonn, Indica et Tibetica Verlag, 1986. X, 371 pp. DM 72.00.
In 1946 Alfonsa Ferrari (1918-1954) published the text and an Italian translation of the Pāramitāsamāsa.' Her edition is based upon a copy of a manuscript in the library of the Mahārāja of Nepal. The colophons of both the Sanskrit manuscript and Vairocana's Tibetan translation attribute the work to Sura or Aryaśūra. Ferrari accepted this attribution on account of similarities in topic, style and vocabulary between the Jātakamälä and the Pāramitāsamāsa. She also pointed out that a number of verses of pādas are either identical or almost identical in both texts (p. 101). Carol Meadows refers to Ferrari's list of correspondences and adds some corrections and additions (p. 121). Both Ferrari and Meadows mention that PS (Pāramitāsamāsa) 1.9 JM (Jätakamālā) VIII. 43. However, the only word they share is kṛtaghne! Carol Meadows writes that the second pada of PS 1.48 the third pada of JM V. 15, but they have in common the words dāne nidane only.
In the first chapter of the introduction Carol Meadows compares in detail the PS and the JM and points out many differences in the treatment of the pāramitās; she arrives at the following conclusion: "My investigation has uncovered no positive link between the two works strong enough to decide the issue in favor of common authorship" (p. 19). She supposes that the PS was probably written around the 7th or 8th century A.D.
Meadow's edition of the PS is based upon a manuscript written in Newārī which was originally in the collection of the Rajguru, Hemraj Pandit, and at present in the National Archives of Nepal. Carol Meadows examines the relationship between this manuscript (K) and the copy used by Ferrari (F co.) and carefully collects the evidence for and against F co. having been copied from K. She concludes: "on the basis of the evidence I have in hand I believe K was the ms. from which Ferrari's copy was made" (p. 31). There is no doubt that both manuscripts are closely related to each other but this is not sufficient to suppose that F co. is copied directly from K.
The text of K is definitely superior to that of F co. According to Carol Meadows her edition differs in 150 instances from the text of Ferrari's edition (F); 115 changes have been made on the basis of K and in the remaining 35 cases Carol Meadows has adopted readings found neither in F nor in K. Carol Meadows lists all the 88 cases in which her edition (CM) differs from F and F co. (pp. 32-34). These 88 cases include such variants as samgacittam / sangacittam and tvakpatra- / tvakpattra- and a number of
Indo-Iranian Journal 32: 1989.