Reviews Of Diffeent Books

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

Page 17

REVIEWS
the oldest dated testimony of non-Buddhist literature in Nepal (p. IX). In his introduction to the text, Grünendahl studies the influence of the Bhargavas on the Vişnudharma. Saunaka is the chief narrator of the text and several members of the Bhargava clan are mentioned in the text. Furthermore, the Visnudharma has several passages in common with the didactic portions of the Mahābhārata (p. 63, n. 3). According to Grünendahl, the Visnudharma is a compilation of the Bhāgavatas, but the compilers were more interested in kriyayoga than in theoretical discussions. The text describes.itself as a śāstra. Grünendahl writes: "Not so much the subject matter itself, as the exclusiveness it is treated with distinguishes the Visnudharma from current categories. Seen in context with other sectarian Sastras' of a similar style, it is not altogether improbable that they represent a particular 'Sastra'-literature that can still be traced in very few extant texts and a number of titles of extinct works, resp. quotations from them" (pp. 66-67). Grünendahl suggests that the disappearance of this
Šāstra'-literature is probably due to the fact that substantial parts of it were incorporated into the epics and especially the Puranas. With regard to the Visnudharmottara, Grünendahl remarks that an examination of the numerous parallels between this text and the Vişnudharma proves that many passages of the Vişnudharma were taken over by the Visnudharmottara, but often after having undergone considerable changes. The Visnudharma became a very popular text in the period of the compilation of encyclopaedic commentaries on older works, and of Nibandhas, and many quotations from it are to be found in them. It is also often quoted by the followers of the Caitanya-school of Visnuism, especially the Six Gosvāmins. As to the time of compilation, Grünendahl points out the difficulties in fixing the date of a text which is. the product of a process of development, and critically examines and rejects Hazra's views.
Grünendahl divides the manuscripts into three groups. The critical apparatus of adhyāyas 1-28 contains the variants of all manuscripts. Thereafter only the relevant variants of the principal representatives of the three groups are noted. Grünendahl's detailed summary of the 43 adhyāyas, and his careful edition, are extremely welcome. To the errata given on a separate sheet, one must add the following: p. 84 (2.23b) for tyakşate read tyakşyate; p. 139 (23.2b) for pātananām read yātanānām;p. 144 (24.21f) for vyddim read vrddhim;p. 171 (32.13c) for mat-sarini read matsariņi. On p. 117 (13.19d) and p. 129 (19.16b) Grünendahl reads vitta-sathyam vivarjayet. Probably vitta should be emended to citta. P. 197.37c: the text has ninām but in other places one finds nrnăm, cf. p. 192 (45d), 197 (38d and 39d).
Ch. Willemen, The Chinese Hevajratantra. The Scriptural Text of the Ritual of Great King of the Teaching. The Adamantine One with Great Compassion and Knowledge of the Void (Orientalia Gandensia VIII). Leuven, Uitgeverij Peeters, 1983. 208 pp. 1380 FB.
In 1959, D. L. Snellgrove translated the Hevajratantra and edited the Sanskrit and Tibetan texts (cf. IIJ 4, 1960, pp. 198–203). In his note on the texts he wrote: “The Chinese version of the tantra (Taisho edition no. 892) appears to be based on the same Sanskrit original as the Tibetan, but the translator clearly found difficulty in rendering the more obscure parts as intelligible Chinese. Thus this version, rather than assisting towards a better understanding of the Sanskrit, would seem to provide new material for a study of its own" (Part II, p. viii).
In his work dedicated to the memory of W. R. B. Acker (1907-1974), 1 Ch. Willemen presents a complete translation of the Chinese version of the Hevajratantra preceded by a long introduction which deals with the division of the tantras, the tantras in China, the Indian and Tibetan texts of the Hevajratantra, Dharmapāla, the translator of the Hevajratantra, and the four consecrations in the Hevajratantra.
Willemen's translation of this difficult text is an important contribution to the study of the Chinese translations of tantric texts. His notes contain explanations of technical terms
Indo-Iranian Journal 29 (1986)