Reviews

ENGLISH

The Psychological Attitude of Early Buddhist Philosophy–By Angarika B. Govinda (The Law Journal Press, Allahabad.)

In spite of the fact that Buddhism contains some of the best metaphysical systems of the world, the Buddhism of the time of Buddha had hardly any metaphysics. The Buddhist schools too, which were the earliest to come after the time of Buddha, do not have rounded-off systems of philosophy. Their interest was mainly ethical and religious, religious not in the sense that the Buddhists believed in any God who was to look after their material and spiritual needs, and who had therefore to be worshipped and invoked, but in the sense that the Buddhists wanted a complete transformation of the human individual and a translation of him to a place which misery cannot reach. The whole responsibility was thrown on the individual himself. As no God was postulated to intervene on behalf of his creatures, the Buddhist wanted to know the real nature of his own being in order to lift it to a realm beyond misery. His interest was immediate, and he did not worry about his relation to the universe around him. And so we have little of cosmology and metaphysics even in the Theravada. But as the interest was in understanding the nature of the individual, we have quite a profound analysis of him, which can compare favourably with some of the best analyses of mind given by contemporary psychologists. It is realty a great wonder that, in an age when man could hardly rise above animism and anthropomorphism, when he saw in everything around him a presiding soul, even in the stone over which he stumbled, even in the arrow with which he was hurt and in the diseases from which he suffered, Buddhism could think of analysing the individual and explain away the soul.

The individual was, for Buddhism, neither merely the body nor merely the mind, but a combination of both. The individual desires this or that thing; he is disappointed; and he feels miserable. So there is no misery if there is no desire; and there can be no desire if there is no individuality or ego-hood. If the sense of ego-hood ceases, there is neither disease nor old age nor death. The root cause of misery is ego-hood. And in order to be above misery, ego-hood must be destroyed. But how is this destruction to be accomplished? We have to know the cause of this ego-hood and destroy it. When the cause is destroyed, the effect too is destroyed. Such is the line of thought that led the Buddhist to an analysis of the individual.

The effect, according to the Buddhist, is an aggregate or sanghata of its causes. The whole is a group of its parts and is destroyed when the parts are separated from each other. So the sense of individuality disappears when the individual is analysed into parts. The analysis into parts is differently given as it is approached from different view-points. But here we see why the Buddhist is so much interested in what we call psychology. We may even say that this psychological analysis exhausts for him the whole of philosophy.

We have to note one important difference between the modern psychological analysis and that of the early Buddhist. The Buddhist had no idea in his speculations corresponding to the modern idea of mind. His analysis is therefore the analysis of the psycho-physical individual. We find matter too given as one of the constituents of the individual.

The ethical importance of Buddhism lies not in any system of ethics which it preached, though the modern student of course may develop such a system. The various emotions, feelings, etc., which accompany ego-hood, have all to be controlled and disciplined if the ego-hood has to be thinned and its unity dissolved into its parts, So we get one of the best accounts of these mental functions and of their relations to each other and to ego-hood. We get also a good account of supra-normal experiences. Early Buddhism had no philosophy distinct from psychology; for its philosophy and psychology were one. They were interwoven into each other and formed one study. The separation of the two is our work.

The present work really supplies a need long-felt in the presentation of Buddhist psychology. This is the second work of its kind, the first being that of Mrs. Rhys Davids, which was based mainly on Aniruddha’s Abhidharmarthasangraha. But now many more works on Abhidharma have come to light, and the modern student of Indian psychology will find excellent material for a really comprehensive and detailed treatment of the subject. And a more comprehensive work than has hitherto been done by any is still a thing to come.

The present work helps the students not only in understanding Buddhist psychology but also its philosophy. For we find in it one of the best connected explanations of the technical terms of Buddhism, and the Appendices to the work will be of great value. True, a tabular and pictorial presentation of ideas is sometimes misleading; but the early Buddhists, as many scholars know, followed the method, which is not without its advantages.

The book will be very useful to the students of Abhi-dharma, who want to understand well the significance of the basic concepts of Buddhism which is now one of the least understood or even the most misunderstood of the systems in its very land of birth.

P. T. RAJU

An Approach to Indian Art–By Sri K. Chandrasekharan (Ashrama, Luz, Mylapore, Madras: - 1940 Pages 40.)

The sixth of the series of annual lectures instituted under the terms of the T. R. Venkatarama Sastri Birthday Endowment, which was delivered by Sri K. Chandrasekharan, M.A., B.L., Advocate, High Court, Madras, on 7th April, 1940, is now published as a booklet. Sri Chandrasekharan has, as the opening sentence shows, the ability to enter into the artist’s mood and the rare capacity not ‘to miss the beauty of the wood in the meticulous counting of the trees.’ These two qualities constitute the right approach to Indian Art. Art is not merely an exact and exacting science; the science of each art, which the artist acquires a thorough knowledge of, is only a prerequisite which enables the artist to catch the fleeting moment of inspiration born of continued contemplation, and to fix it in immortal form. The object of all art is the evocation of Rasa; and consequently, the creation of atmosphere, not mere photographic reproduction, is the aim of the artist. Each art has developed its peculiar language, but all branches of art have the same common ideal. This truth is brought home to the reader by the author’s extract of a dialogue from a Silpa Sastra treatise, showing that to understand the art of image-making, one must know the technique of dancing and so on. The dialogue ends with pointing out the necessity of knowing vocal music before one attempts any of the other arts.

We see the full meaning of this passage when we know that Sri Chandrasekharan’s approach to Indian Art has followed this prescription, although unwittingly. The author has acquired a very sound knowledge of vocal music, as evidenced by several passages in this book. That has served to guide him in his appreciation of dancing, painting, and image-making, and to illumine for him the whole range of Indian art. He finds that to a true artist the conventions of his art are a guide, not a hindrance. Two apt similes are suggested by the author to explain this peculiarity. "A Hindu, born in a family or caste, by his external conformity, though lost in the group, can flower unhampered in his own privacy." Every member of an ordinary Hindu family, "while conforming to caste and sub-caste regulations, yet is free to choose for himself any particular deity for personal devotion." Again, "to the women born in the higher society or aristocratic classes, there appears to exist no freedom whatever in the present day conception of it; yet these same women, shaped by ages of refined living, achieved an absolute standard of perfection in their kind."

I am tempted to quote more from the book, but I am afraid that, so doing I will miss the lesson that the book conveys, that even a review can aspire to be a work of art if it abstains from mere reproduction of printed matter, and in so far as it abstains from it!

V. NARAYANAN

Sarasvatikanthabharana of Bhojadeva. (Madras University Sanskrit Series, No. II–Dr. T. R. Chintamani, M.A., PH.D., University of Madras, 1937. Price Rs. 6.)

Panini’s Grammar has paved the way for the exposition of other systems of Sanskrit Grammar of which more than a dozen are found listed by Dr. Chintamani in his preface to this book. The system of Bhoja of the eleventh century was inaugurated in the Sutras of Sarasvatikanthabharana (a part of which has been published in the Trivandrum Sanskrit Series) and it held its supremacy till the advent of Siddhanta Kaumadi of Bhattoji Dikshita. The date of Bhoja is discussed in the Preface, and a list of his works, other than this comprehensive treatise on Grammar, is given, which shows the encyclopaedic knowledge of that scholar-patron. His Sutras incorporate all the improvements which contributed to the supremacy of the Paniniyan school of grammarians, as the elaborate Bhoja-Panini concordance given as Appendix I shows. There are about 6000 Sutras; and the Index of Sutras is consequently absolutely necessary. The text of these Sutras has been determined by the available manuscripts and also by comparison with the citations from the work of later grammarians. Other useful sources are the commentary of Dandanatha Narayana available for seven out of the eight chapters, and a transcript of a fragment of the commentary prepared by Sri M. Ramakrishna Kavi, M.A., from the original palm leaves from which the copy in the Government Oriental Manuscripts Library, Madras, was prepared. All the variant readings found in the manuscript sources are given in footnotes and Appendices; and in Appendix II, the Editor not only corrects misprints in the texts but indicates that in some places the readings in the footnotes are better, and states suggestions as to correct readings, based on a study of other grammatical works. With the discovery of other and better manuscript texts and commentaries of this work, and with the publication of other treatises on Sanskrit Grammar, we hope that the text of this epoch-making treatise will be settled finally; but till that time we must rest content with this scholarly edition of the tentative text. One wishes that the learned editor had, instead of referring the reader to the Annals of the Madras University Oriental Institute, appended to this work his scholarly paper wherein are discussed the differences in readings between the published part of the Trivandrum edition and the readings in citations which other grammatical works make from this work, as well as the differences between the former of these two and the readings in the present edition.

V. NARAYANAN

Aunadikapadarnava by Perusuri. (Madras University Sanskrit Series, No. 7, Part 4; edited by Dr. T. R. Chintamani, M.A., PH.D., University of Madras, 1939. Price Rs. 4.)

Dr. Chintamani has been collating the Unadi Sutras in various recensions and has already published scholarly editions of the Unadi Sutra vrittis of Svetavanavasin, of Narayana, of Durgasimha and of Bhoja as Parts 1 to 7 of No.7, Madras University Sanskrit Series. The present work, though incomplete, sheds considerable light on the Unadi Sutras, on the forms and gender of nouns and their derivations according to the different grammarians. The only available manuscript of which a Devanagiri transcript and a Telugu one are in the Government Oriental Manuscript Library, Madras, stops in the middle of the fourth of the eight Padas of this "ocean of aunadika words." The author, Perusuri, cites, in the available portion of his work, only from authors anterior to the fourteenth century; the learned editor points out that his guru, Vasudevadhvarin, was probably the author of Balamanorama. There are other points of similarity between this work and other works on grammar, but as evidence about the date of the author, these are inconclusive. Fortunately, the importance of this work does not rest on its antiquity. The author has made a masterly study of the writers on Unadi, and of lexicographers, and of the use or prayoga of words, and put his researches in flowing verses which are easily remembered. His discussion about the genuineness of the Sutras, and about their value, as well as his opinions regarding interpolations and accretions to the Sutras, constitutes an invaluable guide to those who desire to fathom the ocean of Sanskrit words, and in particular to the student of the Unadi Sutras, who seeks to know how the analytic mind of the Sanskrit grammarians worked the apparently chaotic formations of words into a wonderfully consistent though elaborate system.

V. NARAYANAN

TAMIL

Tanjai Vanan Kovai of Poyyamoli Pulavar–(Edited with notes by Vidvan M. V. Venugopala Pillai, Head Tamil Pandit, Lutheran Mission High School, Pursuwalkam, Madras. Published by M. R. Appathurai B.A., 57, Anderson Street, Madras, 1939. Price Rs. 2.)

The early Tamil grammarians concerned themselves not merely with the letters and words in the Tamil language, its syntax and grammatical constructions, its prosody and rhetorical embellishments or alankaras, but also with the lexical value of words, their proper use and significations, and, what is stranger, with detailed thematic classification of the subject-matter of literature. The Tamil mind probably loves to display its keen powers of analysis. Poetical themes, handled by the masters of Tamil and Sanskrit, were subjected to detailed analyses, and an elaborate scheme of Porul-adhikaram was based on such analytical study. Public life in those ancient days largely centred round chieftains who waged war with one another, and who were patrons of learning and of the fine arts of poetry, music and dance. Private life included pre-marital love-making and conjugal affections. These were classified into the themes or turai’s of akam and puram.

In the wake of these grammarians came the conventional poets who loved to display their mastery of treatment and the cunning of their literary hand-work by composing verses illustrative of these classified themes, and rich in the delectable quaint poetic conceits of medieval scholarship. But the object of such a string of verses (or Kovai as it is called) is not so much to evoke the erotic emotion or the Sringara Rasa as to offer fulsome praise to the chieftain whose patronage is sought by the poet. Tanjai Vanan Kovai is a work of this class in praise of one Chandra Vanan of Tanjakkur who was a minister and commander-in-chief of Pandya Kulasekhara Deva of Marai, about 700 years ago.

The poem consists of 425 verses in Kattalai-k-kali-t-turai metre, and the story goes that the patron gave a gold cocoanut to the poet as each verse was sung. About the poet Poyyamoli (one whose words were never untrue), we know little, except that he performed notable miracles, such as bringing to life a horse cursed to death by his disciple, making stone images shake their heads in approbation of his poems, and restoring eyesight to four dancing girls of Kalaiyarkoil in Chettinad, who were born blind. He is reputed to have mounted the funeral pyre of another patron of his, Sinakkan by name.

This Kovai is considered one of the best of its class, and forms part of the course of study for the Tamil Vidwans, both of the old variety and of the University variety. Narkaviraja Nambi’s Aga-p-porul contains, under the respective Agam, themes classified therein, illustrative quotations from this poem. This fact bespeaks its worth, although no inference as to the relative positions in time of the poet and the grammarian can be made therefrom. It is to be noted that most other poems of the Kovai class follow the sequence of themes adopted by Poyyamoli in this Kovai.

The first edition of this work with the commentary of Kunrattoor Asthavadhani Chokkappa Navalar was published in 1893 by Daivasikhamani Mudaliar and Shanmukham Pillai, two notable scholars of Mylapore. A revised edition with critical notes by Vidwan N. Subbayya Pillai of Jaffna was published by Saiva Paripalana Sabha of Jaffna in 1936.

The present edition is intended to remove certain errors and clear certain ambiguities and doubts felt by its author when he studied the poem in 1928 for the Preliminary Vidvan examination. An index of variant readings, a glossary of difficult words, and an index of first lines are some modern features which characterise this edition. Not being intended for the old-world scholar, a simple commentary giving the meaning of each verse word by word is all that is here attempted. The editor has pruned much of the apparently discursive disquisitions which delight those who peruse the old commentaries, and consequently many of the remarkably skilful expositions of the beauties of thought and of the chiseled phrasing of the classic are denied to us in this handbook. This new edition therefore cannot displace the two excellent editions already in the field which give the full text of the commentary of Chokkappa Pulavar, except it be in the hands of the University candidates for the Vidvan title.

V. NARAYANAN.

Dr. P. C. Ray–By Vidvan P. D. Selvakko (Educational Publishing Company, Second Line. Beach, Madras, 1938. Price Annas 10.)

This Tamil biography of Acharya Ray is based on his autobiography in English and the several appreciative sketches that have appeared about him. A list of the works referred to is given. As the biographical material is sparse and as the book is intended for use by school children, large extracts from the scientist’s speeches and writings, showing his views on Indian life and on Indian problems, have been rendered into Tamil, and these form about three-fourths of the book. The book serves its purpose excellently. It is very necessary that these views should be placed before the coming generation as the views of one who has demonstrated to the world his supremacy in scientific work, as well as a genuine love of his country in the practical affiliation of the scientific spirit to the growth of our national industries. There are one or two defects which mar this excellent biography, and which, it is hoped, would be removed in future editions. One such error is in the wrongly pronounced rendering into Tamil of personal names, both Indian and foreign. The title-name itself is wrongly written. So are Ashutosh, Sen, Tata, Davy, and Muir. Another is the introduction of the new Tamil equivalents of scientific terms published in 1938 by the Madras Provincial Tamil Sangam of Tinnevelly, which have given rise to considerable controversy; the effect of this is no doubt minimised by giving the English terms in brackets. It is however desirable that scientific terms should not be translated but merely transliterated, at least till an accepted nomenclature is familiarised to the Tamil reading public. When we have ‘sofa’ and ‘almirah’ transliterated, why should we render such words as glycerine, acetic acid and methyl ammonium nitrate as neerpaku, pulika-k-kati and eri-navacciya-k-kalakam?

V. NARAYANAN