Prüfung und Initiation im Buche Pauṣya und in der Biographie des Naropa by FriedrichWilhelmReview by: Agehananda BharatiJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1966), p. 431Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/596508 .

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Reviews of Books 431

Prilfung und Initiation im Buche Pausya und in der Biographie des Naro pa. By FRIEDRICH

WILHELM. (Miinchener Indologische Studien, Volume 3.) Pp. 108. Wiesbaden, Germany: OTTO lARRASSOWITZ, 1965.

The author of a previous well-received book on polemics in Kautilya's s'astra, Professor Wilhelm now reveals a new and different interest. Basically, this is an evaluation, and a partial improvement on GrUnwedel's obsolete writings on Naropa. But this author's main object is to find similarities, or even a common pattern, in totally disparate initia- tory accounts in the Indian tradition. His chief paradigm for juxtaposition is the guru-disciple complex in the Paussyaparvan and in the Asvatmed- hikaparvan of the Mahdbharata; he then adds short sections illustrating this ubiquitous complex in some other episodes, as from the canonical literature (Chdndogya-Upanisad) and the some- what far-fetched-diachronically speaking-'paro- distic' tales of discipleship in the akhlaq-e-hindf and from the Tamil lore. His conclusions are well taken, though hardly very new: the notion of a chain of teachers (Lehrerlcette, guruparampara) whose origin is ultimately divine; a tradition of extremely harsh, often sadistic tests; the teacher is always a complete master of the established teaching and its consummative practice; and (a rather minor point in the opinion of this reviewer) he often pretends to be ignorant of his initiand's tribulations. At the end of this opusculum, Wil- helm has a rather fascinating section on convergent features in non-Indotibetan lore-Parsival and Cundry (91 sqq.), where Manichean influence can- not be ruled out.

The translations differ only in very minor points from Griinwedel's. This did not have to be so- for although the author quotes II. V. Gunther's recent Life and Teaching of Naropa, he has missed out on sufficiently utilizing Gunther's unique

knowledge of this specific subject. In several cases, where Wilhelm diffidently exonerates his failure to understand a passage, passing it on to GrUnwedel (especially p. 72, note 9), he could have well consulted Gunther, on this and virtually all other opaque points which Griinwedel could not possibly have understood in his days.

In his treatment of the key story of the Mahd- bharata, the author still quotes Hopkins and Jolly who thought that the battle at Kurukseta was the minimal frame of reference. This notion, of course, has been the classical one both in India and abroad; but Kosambi's recent analysis has gone a long way to prove that it was not the battle, but Janamejaya's sacrifice which provides the key, JAOS 84.1 (1964). On the other hand, Wilhelm has a good argument (27) for the primary status of Uttaiila's story in the Pausya-book.

Why Wilhelm includes a three page section about Gustav Meyrink is not quite clear to us. Even if some of his novels contain digestion in distans of some Indian material, there is no more reason to bring him into an academically respectable work which this book is, than quoting from Lobsang- Rampa alias llotchkiss's Third Eye in a book on Tibetan religion. This section should not be there.

Wilhelm did not take much cognisance of con- temporary Indian writing, which may of course be due to the grandiose lack of subscription to learned journals from India at German universities; but his basic apparatus is a bit obsolete-there are references to books and articles published after 1955, but the bulk of the author's secondary material was published well over a decade ago. And, from a Buddhological viewpoint, GrUnwedel should not be taken seriously any longer and hardly deserves any form of 'rewriting ' more than, say, Tyler's or Fraser's works in anthropology: they are not old, honored, and partly wrong.

AGEHANANDA BHARATI SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY

An Introduction to ?afikara's Theory of Knowl- edge. By N. K. DEVARAJA. Pp. xiv + 225. Varanasi: MOTILAL BANARSI DASS, 1962. Rs. 12.

The book under review is the doctoral disserta- tion of Dr. N. K. Devaraja, Professor and Head

of the Department of Indian Philosophy and Religion, Benares Hindu University, which he has "extensively revised and somewhat extended." It is the result of the author's attempt to give "a rigorously objective, critical and comprehensive account of Sahkara's theory of knowledge and of metaphysical doctrines related to that theory. . ...

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