Early Buddhist Monachism. by Sukumar Dutt; Early Monastic Buddhism. by Nalinaksha DuttReview by: Leon HurvitzThe Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Nov., 1961), pp. 117-119Published by: Association for Asian StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2051027 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 117

same time neglected by Western philosophers and worthy of our serious philosophical atten- tion.

J. F. STAAL

University of Pennsylvania

The Pramanavarttikam of Dharmakirti. The First Chapter with the Autocommentary. Text and Critical Notes. By RANIERO

GNOLI. Roma: Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, i96o. Serie Orientale Roma XXIII. xl, 2I2. Indices. L. 5.000. (paper)

The works of the great Buddhist logician Dharmakirti (seventh century A.D.) constitute a high-water mark among those productions of Indian Buddhism that are worthy of study by anyone generally interested in traditional In- dian thought. Indeed, later Buddhist pandits persistently dwelt on this most famous of Dharmakirti's works, adding a huge com- mentarial literature in Sanskrit. In Tibet, where enthusiasm for Buddhist logic continued unabated, this work not only eclipsed Dhar- makirti's other writings, but also those by his great predecessor Difnnga.

In the 1930's Rahula Sdnkrtyiyana made an immense contribution to Sanskrit Buddhism with his numerous photographs of Sanskrit texts preserved in Tibet. He himself was espe- cially devoted to Buddhist logic and edited the Pramanavarttikam in Sanskrit (appendix to The Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol. XXIV, March-June, 1938), as well as several imposing commentaries. These pioneering ventures have laid the foundation for a number of studies that have appeared or are in process (e.g. Dr. Masatoshi Nagatomi of Harvard is preparing an English translation of the Praminavdrttikam) and are making this glorious Buddhist chapter of Indian cul- ture better known both in the West and in India. Unfortunately, this work was not ac- cessible in the original Sanskrit when Stcher- batsky wrote his monumental Buddhist Logic (Leningrad, I932; reprinted in s'Gravenhage, 1958).

It has remained for Dr. Gnoli to edit Dhar- makirti's own commentary (the svavrtti). It covers only one chapter, the one on inference for oneself (svdrthdnumdna), that is, inference as an independent psychological process, not

formulated in a manner calculated to convince another. Dharmakirti did not comment on the other three chapters: he entrusted this task to his disciple Devendrabuddhi. The editor of such a difficult work, which tends toward excessive brevity, with "words and meaning as though weighed on scales," as Dharmakirti himself described it (Gnoli, Intro., v), must exert a philological weighing of each expres- sion of the manuscripts and of the Tibetan translation. To my mind, Gnoli has done just that, and the result is a precious revelation of Dharmakirti's thinking.

The numerous notes interpreting variants in the Tibetan translation are made with a sober appreciation of the hazards involved in recon- structing Sanskrit phrases from Tibetan texts.

A minor point, although curious in view of Gnoli's carefulness, is the misspelling of two Japanese names: Masotochi Nagatomi (Intro., xxxviii) should be written as given above; Masaaky Hattory (p. I8I) should be written Masaaki Hattori.

While scanning the edited text, the reviewer was struck to observe the rarity of the Sanskrit word citta (which does occur at I6o.I9 and I60.2I) and the commonness of the word buddhi. Presumably Dharmakirti prefers to use the latter word instead of the former one. It is not within the province of this review to discuss the meaning(s) of buddhi and its Ti- betan translation blo, or to decide whether Stcherbatsky (Vol. II, p. I43, note) is right in concluding that buddhi has two usages in these logical texts. This is just one of the many in- vestigations made possible by the very welcome appearance in edited Sanskrit of Dharmakirti's autocommentary.

ALEX WAYMAN

University of Wisconsin

Early Buddhist Monachism. By SUKUMAR

DUTT. New York: Asia Publishing House, I960. First published I924. X, I72. Bibli- ography, Index. $55.25

Early Monastic Buddhism. By NALINAKSHA

DUTT. Calcutta: Oriental Book Agency, I960. First published 1941. ii, 311. Indices.

In spite of the apparent similarity in titles, the two works in question bear each other no resemblance at all. The former is an exhaustive

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118 JOURNAL OF ASIAN STUDIES

study of certain specific aspects of the early, specifically Theravada, monastic discipline from the detached point of view of the his- torian, the latter an attempt at a general treat- ment of early Buddhism without regard to any specific school, but written from an avowedly partisan point of view by a man who is him- self a convert to Theravada Buddhism.

The former work begins with an introduc- tion, the purpose of which is to point out the principal failings of the older European works on the Buddhist monastic discipline, most par- ticularly the failure of the older scholars to maintain a rigidly historical point of view unadulterated by philosophic considerations. The author is referring to the widely prevalent tendency to accept the Vinaya as a finished product, static from the time of its canoniza- tion until the emergence of the Mahayana, or, worse yet, the propensity to accept at face value the sutra-like accounts in the Vinaya texts of the origin of the Pratimoksa prohibitions. The entire first chapter, "The Laws of the Vinaya- pitaka and Their Interpretation," is devoted to a refutation of these views, accompanied by a conjectural account of how the Vinaya took shape. In conclusion the author says (p. 29):

"In interpreting a Vinaya rule, the following points must be carefully considered and allow- ance made therefor: (i) The orthodox theory which covers the diverse origins of the rules. (ii) The primitive legal form in which all the rules are cast. (iii) The place of any rule in question in the order of evolution of Sangha life among the Bhikkhus. (iv) The value of the story in relation to the rule ostensibly based upon it."

The second chapter, "The Primitive Parivra- jakas-a Theory of Their Origin," deals at some length with the phenomenon of the itin- erant ascetic in ancient India, a phenomenon well known to antedate Buddhism by a con- siderable margin. The Buddhists were, from the time of their origin and for several cen- turies thereafter, but one group of parivrakatas. The author takes up and disposes one by one of the various theories of the origin of this institution, to conclude with one of his own. He holds that the prototypes of the parivrajaka were purveyors of Aryan culture to the non- Aryan peoples of Eastern India, a region in which there was no Brahmanical caste, no tra-

dition of hereditary scholarhood, no seats of traditional learning. This, in the author's view, accounts for the salient features of the pariv- rajaka, viz., his lack of a fixed abode, the com- parative liberties he takes in matters of dogma, the quasi-Brahmanical status of honor he en- joys, and his zealous sense of mission. The author mentions also the complete break that the status of the parivraljaka represents with regard to the Brahmanical tradition, specifi- cally rejection of caste and clan and indiffer- ence to the continuation of his line. No attempt is made to reconcile the two propositions. In fact, the second chapter is followed by a brief appendix showing from early Sanskrit writings how the status of the householder was upheld in the Brahmanical tradition.

In the third chapter, entitled "The Sangha and the Patimokkha: Development of the Lat- ter," the author makes the somewhat question- able point that originally the totality of parivrd- jakas constituted the one and only Order, and that it is not proper to speak of Orders within it. "In speaking, therefore, of the original Buddhist Sangha, we must not posit a religious Order, for this implies some external bond of union other than a common Dhamma. The Gan.as and Sanghas among the primitive Pariv- rajakas of the age were probably none of them religious Orders-they were simply different sects of a heterogeneous community of reli- gious mendicants." (p. 67, emphasis in the original) The author might appear to be quib- bling, were it not for the fact that he states earlier his belief that the entire body of itiner- ant ascetics had a common rule of life, the specifically Buddhist Vinaya being the product of a long development, at the end of which it was codified and assigned a more ancient origin. While there can be no quarrel with the latter part of this proposition, what distin- guished the Buddhists from the other parivra- jakas, apart from loyalty to a different teacher? We are not told.

The remainder of this chapter and the en- tirety of the fourth deal with the Pratimoksa, first as a code of I5o rules, then as a ritual of confession at solemn convocations of the Bud- dhist clergy. The fifth chapter, "The Growth of the Buddhist Coenobium," deals with the evolution of the Buddhist monastery. Citing evidence from both Pali and Greek sources to

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BOOK REVIEWS 119

show that the early sramanas were wandering hermits, the author develops the idea that the annual retreat during the rainy season led of necessity to the building of lodging quarters for whole groups of Buddhist monks. Quarters originally intended to be temporary became, in the course of time, semi-permanent and then permanent, the so-called dvasa.

The last two chapters appear to be the es- sence of the book, for which the remainder is but introductory. Here in great detail are de- scribed the elaborate rules governing the life of the monastic community, with particular emphasis on breaches of monastic discipline and the elaborate machinery developed for dealing with them. The author is to be thanked for these two final chapters, since the material he brings together in them is contained in such disarray in the original Pali literature. Still, this section of the book is rough sledding; the reader cannot escape the feeling that greater system and clarity would have been possible. Also, one would have expected a book pub- lished in New York (although printed in India) to take much less for granted on the part of the reader. It is questionable how much would be understood by the Western reader not already versed in the problem to at least some extent, i.e., the majority of Western readers. Lastly, even the specialist will have to look twice at the slipshod transcriptions of Sanskrit and Pali text.

As for the second book, it is difficult to know why its title contains the word "monas- tic" at all, unless it be that the author is trying to distinguish strictly between monastic and lay Buddhism. Like all general introductions to a huge subject, the book is selective. It was published in India for Indians, by a man who is himself a convert and clearly wishes to place his religion in the most favorable light possi- ble. The primary textual references, as far as Buddhist materials are concerned, are to the Pali literature, both canonical and extra-canoni- cal (with particular emphasis on Buddha- ghosa), and to the Abhidharmakosavytkhyd. Oddly enough, there is more reference to the Vydkhyd than to the Kosa itself, in spite of the fact that the latter is completely available in French.

To give a brief summary of its contents, the book begins with the religious and philosophic

situation in pre-Buddhist India, takes up the life and career of the Buddha himself, then deals with the cardinal doctrines of Theravada Buddhism in accord with the traditional method, i.e., by categories and subdivisions. For the non-Indian this is not without value, since it gives insight into the dogmatic method- ology common to all schools of Buddhism. On the other hand, the bulk of Pali quotations and all or nearly all Sanskrit quotations, the latter being from Brahmanical and Mahayana sources as well as from the KosavyJkhya, are given in the original without translation. Also, for some unexplained reason, the Pali is always given in romanization, while the Sanskrit is given in romanization in the text but in Devanagari in the footnotes! In addition, there is an unfor- tunate tendency to give the same word now in its Pali garb, now in its Sanskrit garb. When these two forms are as far apart as sati and smnrti, then even the Indian, unless versed in both languages, is unlikely to recognize them as two forms of one and the same word.

LEON HURVITZ University of Washington

Minor Buddhist Texts. By GIUSEPPE Tucci. Rome: Istituto Italiano Per II Medio Ed Extremo Oriente, Part I, 1956. Xi, 3IO + addenda et corrigenda; Part II, I958. xi, 289.

In the course of Professor Guiseppe Tucci's several scientific expeditions to Tibet and Ne- pal he discovered many ancient Sanskrit manu- scripts. "I could acquire the originals of some of them; of others I took photos, of some I had copies made." These two volumes, the first to appear in the series, contain editions of the manuscripts which Tucci has so painstakingly collected over the past several years. Though these editions are modestly referred to as "minor Buddhist texts," some among them are of great interest, not only from the viewpoint of a scholar of Buddhist doctrine and com- parative religion but also from that of the historian.

Volume One of Buddhist Minor Texts con- tains editions of the following works: the Trisatiktaydh Praj,fi7pdramiztyah Kcarikdsapla- tih, a text ascribed to Asanga; the Mah7ydna- Vimsnikd of Nagarjuna, the Navasloki of Kam-

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