The Kulacuddmani Tantra and the Vamakesvara Tantra Review

7/17/2019 The Kulacuddmani Tantra and the Vamakesvara Tantra Review

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-kulacuddmani-tantra-and-the-vamakesvara-tantra-review 1/4

The Kulacūḍāmaṇi Tantra and The Vāmakeśvara Tantra with the Jayaratha Commentary by

Louise M. FinnReview by: Teun GoudriaanJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 108, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1988), pp. 640-642Published by: American Oriental Society

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603157 .

Accessed: 18/06/2014 19:33

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Oriental Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of

the American Oriental Society.

http://www.jstor.org

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos

http://www.jstor.org/stable/603157?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


http://www.jstor.org/stable/603157?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aos



640

Journal

of the American

Oriental

Society

108.4

(1988)

Dreyer's

painstaking effort to make her

edition as compre-

hensive

as possible demonstrates

her erudition and

command

of

the proper

philological methodology. The

usefulness of the

work

lies not so

much

in

offering scholars an

accurate edition

of

a text to be

studied and translated, but in

the information

provided for further research into the problem of textual

transmission in

ancient India.

Caren

Dreyer's careful and critical work

is

a

refreshing

break from

the overwhelming

number

of

superficial,

repetitive

studies often

encountered

in

the

field. It is

frustrating,

however, to be

presented with such a

detailed piece of

scholarship which

only incorporates a small

part

of

the entire

treatise. Fault may be

found

with

earlier

editions

for

many

reasons;

but the work of the

older pioneers of

Indology

in

general

produced editions

of

complete texts,

which

give

an

overview

of the entire framework of the

author's

or

the

tradition's thought.

Students

who

undertake

new

editions as

dissertations

for

graduate

degrees are

often

forced

to

circumscribe

their work

to

fit

limited time-frames of financial

support.

These

promis-

ing scholars who have the

inclination

for

such tedious

endeavors should be strongly

encouraged

with the

necessary

funds to

complete

the

editions

of the entire texts.

In

so

doing,

lasting contributions to

scholarship

will

surely

be the

product.

KENNETH

G. ZYSK

EASTERN

MICHIGAN

UNIVERSITY

The

Kulacfiddmani Tantra

and The Vdmakesvara Tantra

with the Jayaratha

Commentary. Introduced, translated

and

annotated by LOUISEM.

FINN. Wiesbaden:

OTTO

HARRASSOWITZ,

1986.

Pp.

417.

Despite the efforts of

individual scholars in the past, the

study of

Hindu Tantric literature still leaves much to

be

desired.

Any

new

attempt

at translation of relevant texts

should

therefore

be

welcomed

in

principle. The present

book

contains

the first English translation of two 9akta

Tantras,

the

Kulaciiddmani

(KCT)

and the

Vdmakesvara

(VT; also

known

as Nitydso1daSikarnava r

VdmakeSvarfmata), pre-

ceded by a "Historical Perspective" (pp. 11-45) and an "In-

troduction

to

the

Philosophy

of

the Texts"

(pp. 46-67).

The

translations are

provided

with

hundreds

of

annotations. Both

Tantras still offer a great number of

textual problems. The

VdmakeSvara,

by far the

better in literary respect, and one of

the

most important sources

of

the Srividya

tradition, has

already

been edited several

times

with different

Sanskrit

commentaries (by

K. S.

Agase

in the

Anandagrama Skt.

Series, with the

commentary

of

Bhaskararaya

[Poona, 1908];

by

P.

M. K. Shastri

in

the Kashmir Ser.

of

Texts

and

Studies, no. 66 [Srinagar, 1945], with Jayaratha; and by V. V.

Dviveda with the commentaries by

givananda

and Vidya-

nanda [Varanasi, 1968]), but a good

comparative textual

study is still outstanding. Mrs. Finn

translates P. M. K.

Shastri's version of the text. The situation of the KCT is

worse: its only edition by G. Ch. Vedantatirtha, which

appeared in 1915 in Avalon's series "Tantrik

Texts" as vol. 4,

is philologically substandard. Especially in the case of the

latter text, the preparation of a reliable translation in the

absence of

any critical treatment of the textual transmission

is difficult, and the result cannot be more

than preliminary.

The author has been aware of these

problems, because of

which she has "sought the help of a Tantric

scholar in India"

(p. 9)

in

the person of Pandit H. N. Chakravarti, one of

Gopinath Kaviraj's disciples, and a few others. This proce-

dure

seems entirely warranted in the case of an obscure

ritualistic text like the KCT, provided the

critical mind is still

present and the principle of falsifiability

applied. The KCT

belongs

to a

group of Tantras professing extreme

devotion

to

Kulism. They are of strongly ritualistic orientation, tedi-

ous to read for the non-initiated and of

uncertain age. Some

of

these (e.g., the Kuldrnava and the

KdlTvildsa)

were also

edited under Avalon's direction. The KCT is perhaps the

most unclear and confused specimen of this group. Mrs.

Finn

may be right in her relatively early

dating

of

the text

(9th

or

10th cent.; p. 21). The internal evidence

adduced is

largely hypothetical but should be taken

seriously. For in-

stance, she stresses the

fact

that the

KCT

deals

with

several

goddesses on an almost equal footing.

Among

these are the

group

of the Mothers

and

the

independent Mahisasuramar-

dinT. In an argumentation which largely involves iconog-

raphy and epigraphy, she tries to show that both cults are

characteristic of an early period

of

Saktism

and

went

into

decline

after the first

millennium

A.D. (p.

25).

Another

argu-

ment

concerns

some reminiscences

of

Buddhism

in the

text.

The

questions raised

in these

pages

are

of no mean

impor-

tance for

Indian religious history

and should

be

studied

in

more

detail. Mrs.

Finn's

points

of view

might

serve as

preliminary working hypotheses

which

should, however, by

no means be

dogmatically

adhered to.

The "archaic

quali-

ties" of the KCT

(p. 32)

are

open

to

doubt

as

long

as

no

serious

investigation

of

its

linguistic

and

metric char-

acteristics

has been

made.

To

this

reviewer's

mind,

the text

also displays a deliberate, somewhat naive obscurity rooting

in an imperfect mastery

of

grammar

and

style;

in

other

places,

a frankness

bordering

on

crudity.

The

VT

is

a

totally

different

text: much

more

sophisticated

and

balanced,

its Sanskrit

entirely

correct and

at times even

satisfying

to

the

literary

mind.

Besides,

there

is the

learned

commentary by Jayaratha,

an

epigone

of the

Kashmir

Saiva

tradition

(about

1200

A.D.). Although

both

texts

(KCT

and

VT) are devoted

to the

worship

of

gakti,

they

are

indeed so

different

that

even

their combination

in

one volume seems

This content downloaded from 62.122.79.21 on Wed, 18 Jun 2014 19:33:34 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions






Reviews of Books

641

questionable.

Instead,

a

separate

treatment

with

somewhat

more

attention to textual

problems

might

have been

pre-

ferable.

Actually,

philological

accuracy

is the weak

side

of

the

book.

In

the

case

of

the

KCT,

a

positive

note is the inclusion

of

mostly casual remarks which prove that the author has been

in touch

with the

living

tradition,

such as in n.

53

on

2.3

(p.

83): "the

vessel should

be

made

of

copper."

The

reader

is,

however, left in

the dark about their

source

(H.

N.

Chakra-

varti, or

another

authority?).

Besides,

there is no

discussion

of

the

problem as to how far

these

modern

opinions or

traditions

agree

with the

situation at

the time of

composition

of

the

text.

In

Tantric oral

exegesis, the source

and circum-

stance of

the instruction

should

because of

this

uncertainty

be

noted as

carefully

as

possible.

Such information

is,

e.g.,

much

desired

on KCT

4.56-58

(p.

110;

location

of

plthas

on

the

worshipper's

body),

where we find

correct

and

useful

explanations

such as: "the

top surface

of

the

feet"

for

devrkuta. One concludes that the reference is to oral infor-

mation;

the

system

is,

however,

also

found

in

Kdlika

Pur.

18.42f.

Moreover,

on KCT

6.2f.

(p.

126)

where

the same

system

is

alluded

to,

the

author

seems to have

forgotten

her

own

explanations

given

on

4.56-58. Other

instances of

start-

ling

inconsistency

could

be

given, which can

partly

be ex-

plained as

due to

excessive

dependence on

other

authorities.

No

mention

has been

made

of

important

parallels

to

fragments from the

KCT

in

such texts

as

the

Syamdrahasya

and

the

KauldvalTnirnaya

which

on

occasions

give a defi-

nitely better

text, as

in 2.9c

-grhlta,

Sydmdr.:

-grht~rms;

or

3.48

varam

prdpya, Sy.:

varam

prdrthya. As to the VT

little

reference is

made to

Dviveda's

edition, even

where it

con-

tains

a

better text

as

in

2.77

siddhikravya, Dviv.:

siddha-

dravya

(with

Vidyananda's

explanation

as

rasdyana ). Finn's

note on p.

306 ignores

this

easily

available

information.

But

the

most

serious

objection

which must

be made

is that

frequently the

translation is

based

upon

insufficient

insight

into

the

Sanskrit

of the

texts. In

KCT 3.50,

vayasd

jdtito

vdpi hind

should be

translated "one

who is

inferior by

age or

by

caste," not by

"an old

caste

woman, or

even one

without

caste"

p. 98). KCT

6.20

sahasram

hunet,

not "he

should offer

an

extra

thousand

(repetitions of

the

mantra),"

but "he

should offer

a

thousand

libations (into

the

fire)." KCT

6.43,

describing

the

guptisiddhi,

is

misunderstood

(p.

132).

In

KCT 7.29 (part of a MahisamardinTstava), he word mahas

(not

infrequently used in

kdvyastotras)

refers

not to the

Goddess' feet

but to

her

whole

person.

For KCT

2.24 "he

should offer

the

remainder

of the

wine to the

women

and to

himself"

(p. 87),

I

suggest: "He

should

administer to

himself

the

remainder of

(what was

offered

to) the

woman"

(Skt.

yositas tv

avaSesan tu

svdtmany

eva

niyojayet).

VT

2.12 sa

bhaved

ddsavad

vaSi:

the

translation

(p. 290)

"that

person

(i.e., the

sddhaka)

becomes a

master

as though

of

slaves" is

simply not

allowed

by Skt.

syntax and

results in

exactly the

opposite

of what is

meant, viz.,

"that

person

(i.e.,

the

sddhya) will be

in

his

(the

sadhaka's) power

like a

slave."

A

similar expression

in

2.56 is also

treated

wrongly.

In

VT

2.49, kanthe

vd

bhujamiilatah

is

translated

(p. 299) by

"(on)

the

neck from the

shoulder."

But

-tah

can have the

function

of the locative in stylistical variations, a point easily proved

by

a reference to

good old J. S.

Speyer,

Sanskrit

Syntax

(Leiden, 1886;

repr.

Delhi:

Motilal

Banarsidass,

1973), par.

103. We

should therefore

translate: "on the neck or on the

upper end of the

arm"

(second

vd

omitted metri

causa).

A

minor

point:

on

p.

288

(VT

2.1),

the

dvTpdmndya

f

the

text

refers to

enumerations

of

continents

mystically

located

in

the

sddhaka's

body

as

can, e.g.,

be

found

in

the

Kubjikdmata

(Kulduikdmndya), h.

21.

Unfortunately, Jayaratha's

commentary

has

also

often

been

misunderstood. At

VT

1.4

(p.

176), Jay.

in one

enormous

syntactical unit

repeats,

readjusts,

analyzes

and

carefully

explains

all

morphemes

of

the

stanza: a

brilliant

example

of

commentatorial style. A translator should take care to repeat

the

exact terms of the

stanza's

direct translation in

the

commentary,

like

beacons in

its

argumentative

waterway.

This

principle is

only partly

kept by the

translator,

who

repeats

"splendour"

as "glory,"

"great"

stem

mahd-,

analyzed

by

Jay. as

mahatyd, viz.,

sriyd) as "because of

(her)

greatness"

(connection with

srT

does not

appear),

and

"alphabet"

(mdtrkd) as

"mother." Some

words

are

treated

correctly, e.g.,

"Goddess,"

but in the

latter

case the

reader

is

left

unaware of

the

"etymological" connection

of devT

with the

root dTv-

"to

play," subtly

shown by

Jay. with

his addition

krTdanaSTldm.

Reference

could have been

made to

Sivananda's

commentary,

RjuvimarSinT,

on VT 1.1

(ed. Dviveda, p. 9) where the

connection of

the

Goddess with

"play"

s

explicitly

made clear

(and cf.

my article, "On the

Goddess'

'Phases

of

Life'

in

Some

Hinduistic

Texts,"

in

Effigies Dei,

Essays on the

History of

Religions, ed. Dirk

van

der Plas

[Supplements to

Numen,

vol. LI;

Leiden: E. J.

Brill,

1987], 69-82).

On p. 319,

Jay.'s

expression

akhydtvdtmd

mohah "delusion

which

con-

sists of

absence

of

clarity"

has not been

understood. As

often,

Andre

Padoux's Recherches

sur la

symbolique

et

l'Nnergiede

la

parole dans

certains textes

tantriques

(2nd ed.,

Paris, 1975),

would have been the

right guide

(pp. 160,

379).

In

Jay.'s

comments on

1.

11,

the

function of

iti has

not been

correctly

grasped.

Naturally, there are several fine translations in this book,

but

the

mistakes are so

frequent that one

can

never be sure.

The

designs

included here

and

there are

attractive;

but the

small

design

on

p.

294

connected with

Jay.'s

comment on VT

2.23

sasanthdsanthasvarapaniktidvaya-

is a

misnomer. One

should correct

santha- into

sanda-, and

understand:

"two

rows of

vowels, one

with

and one

without the

neuters

(i.e., the

four

vocalic r's

and I's)".

Of the

Appendices,

Appendix 4

could have

been

made

up

with

more

precision. There

is a

Bibliography, but no

Index.







642

Journal of the American Oriental Society 108.4 (1988)

"The translation has been through

various revisions," says

the author

on p. 10. Nevertheless, the book-despite

certain

merits and

much diligence-gives evidence

of having been

published too soon.

TEUN GOUDRIAAN

UNIVERSITY

OF UTRECHT

Kashmir Shaivaism.

By

J. C.

CHATTERJI.

Albany:

STATE

UNIVERSITY

OF NEW

YORK PRESS,

1986.

Pp.

xxiv

+ 175.

$29.50 (cloth),

$9.95 (paper).

The present book

is

a

reprint

of the

pioneering exposition

first

published

in 1914 as the first

volume

of the Kashmir

Series

of Texts and

Studies.

It was the first

(and,

for

a

long

time, the only)

account

of

certain aspects

of non-dualistic

Shaivism in Kashmir. Though quite dated, and surpassed by

the work of recent

scholars

(especially

Sanderson

and

Padoux),

if used cautiously,

this volume remains

a very

useful,

short introduction

to

certain aspects

of the Pratya-

bhijnia,

particularly

the

meaning and

evolution of the

thirty-

six tattvas, as well

as

to the

historical

outlines of one

branch

of Shaivism

in

Kashmir.

The

book

is divided

into two sections,

the first part

entitled

"The Main Doctrines

of

the System"

and the second

part

"History

and

Literature." For

some

unexplained reason,

the

order of these

two sections has

been inverted from

the

original

edition

in

which

the historical

account quite

prop-

erly preceded

the doctrinal.

In the

1986 edition,

the doctrinal

account plunges

the reader directly

into a

complex

religious

universe

that is

lacking

in

historical context.

A

short preface

by

William Barnard supplies

useful in-

formation

for the

general

reader about

the four upayas, only

one of the

many

key topics

which Chatterji

failed to deal

with. The foreword by

Swami Shantananda,

while useful

and interesting,

continues

the rather

curious

link that

some-

how seems

to have been

established between

the medieval

tradition and

certain

of its

modern,

neo-Hindu appropriators.

It

was

with

the

publication

of

Chatterji's

book

that the

term Kashmir Shaivism (or

"Shaivaism" as

the cover

of the

book

proclaims)

seems

to have come

into

general

usage.

Until very recently, scholars have uncritically followed suit in

using

this

designation

as

if

there were

accepted

agreement

as

to its meaning.

Recently however,

the inappropriateness

and

distortive

character

of this

appellation

have been

argued

on

at

least

two

grounds. First,

the term seems

to

imply

that

there was

a

single

tradition

of

Shaivism

in

Kashmir,

whereas

it

is

now well established

that there were several

varieties

which were

deeply

divided

both

doctrinally

and

ritually.

There were various

forms

of

non-dualistic

tantric

Shaivism

represented

by

a series of related

preceptorial

lineages:

the

Trika, Pratyabhijfia,

Kaula, Krama

and Mata, which were

by no means

identical in practice or

doctrine. In addition,

there were

also powerful lineages of

conservative, dualistic

Shaiva Siddhanta

in Kashmir, as well

as a centrist cult of the

worship of Svacchandabhairava.

Of these, it is

the first

group that seems to have generally and imprecisely been

referred to

as Kashmir Shaivism. Secondly, it is by

no means

clear that the teaching

of Shaivism as propounded

in any of

these groups

originated wholly or exclusively

in Kashmir.

Thus, the re-publication

of this book without some

kind of

explanatory historical

footnote alluding to these

problems

furthers

misconceptions as to the current

status of research

in this area.

One curious omission

is that a number

of appendices

referred to

in the footnotes appear

never to have been

published,

and are as absent

in the 1962 Indian reprint as

they are

in the present edition. Thus,

there are references to

non-existent appendices

III-XII. This is not a minor

omis-

sion because Chatterji claims to include in these appendices

the important textual

references upon which his

doctrinal

exposition

is based.

Thus the omission

of these

appendices

seriously

vitiates

the usefulness

of

Chatterji's

account

for

the

specialist.

In addition, and

not

surprisingly,

Chatterji's

book com-

pletely obscures

the tantric

and

transgressive

character

of the

traditions

whose

philosophy

and

history

he

attempts

to

summarize.

The modern

reader

must

go

elsewhere

if he is to

realize that these

traditions

were

not

merely philosophical

schools of thought,

but

employed powerful

ritualistic and

meditative

tools

in order

to

replicate experientially

the con-

ceptions

they taught.

The book includes

a short list

of books

in

English

on

"Kashmir

Shaivism." However,

some

of

the best books

on

the subject up

until

now

have

been

published

in French

and

Italian.

It

might

have been

useful

to include

some

of

these

titles as well.

Nevertheless,

if these

provisos

are

kept

in

mind,

Chatterji's

book

represents

a

useful short

introduction,

and

its

republication

is

certainly

welcomed

as

contributing

to the

wider dissemination

of studies

in

this

area.

PAUL E.

MULLER-ORTEGA

MICHIGAN STATE

UNIVERSITY

Karawitan:

Source

Readings

in Javanese Gamelan

and

Vo-

cal Music,

vol.

2.

JUDITH BECKER,

editor;

ALAN

H.

FEIN-

STEIN,

assistant

editor.

Ann

Arbor:

CENTER

FOR

SOUTH

AND

SOUTHEAST

ASIAN

STUDIES,

THE

UNIVERSITY

OF

MICH-

IGAN,

1987.

Pp. xx,

401, 1 color

plate.

The

present

volume,

Number

30

in the

series

Michigan

Papers

on

South

and

Southeast

Asia, is

the second

of

a





The Kulacuddmani Tantra and the Vamakesvara Tantra Review

Documents

Transcript of The Kulacuddmani Tantra and the Vamakesvara Tantra Review