A Khotanese Love Story (Review by Degener)

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Pelliot Chinois 2928. A Khotanese Love Story by Mauro MaggiReview by: Almuth DegenerJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Third Series, Vol. 9, No. 2 (Jul., 1999), pp. 306-307Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and

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interpretation goes against all we know of Zoroastrian rules connected with menstruation, and

therefore must be rejected. An alternative to it would be to take ta as meaning "until" and read the

passage: "As long as a woman is not in menses (lit. "until a woman is/becomes in menses), she may

perform the Yasna with zohr, (if) she is in menses, one should not allow her into the fire-chamber."The editors interpret ta as a conjunction, meaning "that is; namely" (which works surprisingly well in

other sentences) and separate the first clause from what follows: "A woman, of course, may be in

menses." This leaves the problem, for the following sentences would have to mean: 'In that case, she

(a-s) may perform the Yasna with zohr." The circumvention of this problem by interpreting oh to

mean "thus" referring to a ruling that follows in this case strikes me as unlikely; in such rulings, oh

kunisn usually means "it may be so done."

This problem illustrates, I hope, the difficulty of the work done by the editors; sound philology

alone will not do for the study of a text of such great complexity. The careful combination of textual

philologywith contextual information,

particularlyon subde

pointsof observance and doctrine, has

produced not only a satisfactory reading of a difficult text, but also an insightful work of reference for

the study of the development and interpretations of Zoroastrian rituals. I hope the remaining two

volumes will be published soon.

Albert de Jong

Pelliot Chinois 2928. A Khotanese love story. Translated by Mauro Maggi. (Serie Orientale

Roma, vol. LXXX). pp. 88,4 plates. Rome, Istituto Italiano per l'Africa e l'Oriente. 1997. 25,000 Lire.

Over the past ten years, there have appeared in the field of Khotanese philology, besides numerous

articles and studies on single words or on grammatical problems, several new text editions, e.g. G.

Canevascini's edition of the Sanghatusutra (1993), Duan Qing's edition of the Aparimitayuhsutra

(1992), and R. E. Emmerick's edition of the St Petersburg folios (1995). Mauro Maggi's edition and

translation of "Pelliot Chinois 2928" is one of the finest works that has been published. Like the

other editions mentioned above, it is a Buddhist text, but unlike them we do not know of any parallel

text in another language. Maggi calls it "Love Story" on account of its content, namely the love story

of a householder's son and of aminister's daughter. It is not quite clear whether there is one story, or

two stories, the second one being a story cast within a framework of the first story. The decisive point

is in verse 7. There, a certain householder who got married and to whom a son was born in verses

1?6 "spoke to his wife. He said to her: 'Here now, a son has been born ...'." What is not quite clear

is where the householder's speech ends. Is it in verse 8, as Maggi suggests? Or is the Love Story

(which really starts here) in fact the story within, put into the householder's mouth? Sincewe have

only a fragmentary text in Khotanese and no parallel text elsewhere, we cannot decide this question;

however, the words mara maja ksxra "here in our land" in verse 9 seem to point to a frame story

construction. In any case, the story is a pleasure to read in Maggi's edition and translation, much

more indeed than Buddhist doctrinal texts. Maggi offers some new interpretations, almost all of them

entirely convincing, such as his explanation of ysanausci- as "kinship" and his delightful interpretation

of the hzpax piilona as "leopard" < *prdanika-, although it is impossible to prove. Even if it is difficultto follow Maggi in his conclusions, his argumentation is always well worth reading. For example, I

do not think his interpretation of vachauste as "wished" is irrefutable. Vachauste could mean something

like "presented", "asked for", "thought of", or even something else. Still, his refutation of earlier

interpretations of this word is entirely reasonable and certainly correct and in itselfmeans a

considerable step forward in Khotanese studies. Maggi always considers the context,?

maybe a

commonplace operation in other philologies, but worth mentioning in the field of Khotanese studies.

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As to the translation itself, I should just like to point out that ha(n)dara- does not always mean "other"

but, like Sanskrit anyatara- "a certain", e.g. in verse 2 hada sa bisadarai "a certain householder" instead

of "one other householder". But, as mentioned above, this small booklet is an outstanding work. It is

ofcourse

furnished witha

glossaryand

very goodfacsimiles.

Almuth Degener

Many heads, arms and eyes. Origin, meaning and form of multiplicity in Indian art. By

Doris Meth Srinivasan. (Studies in Asian Art and Archaeology 20). pp. xxi, 436, illus. Leiden, E.J.

Brill, 1997. US$151.

"Why are the images of Indian gods provided with many arms and heads?" This pioneering book,

the impressive result of years of painstaking textual, religious and art-historical research, provides the

answer. In the author's words, this is a "study of what an image tells us about the origin and structure

of divinity in the cosmic unfolding process; it is not a study about the icon and its use in worship by

god's devotee ..." (p. 14). And what an exhaustive, magisterial study it is The aim of the author is to

investigate the rise and development of what she aptly defines as the "multiplicity convention". The

analysis focuses on north India, especially on the area of Mathura, from ca. the second century B.C.,

when this convention began, until the third century A.D. when it was fully established. In order to

put her data into a context, the author also looks at pre- and proto-historic material, as well as at later

pieces of the Gupta and post-Gupta era.

The book is divided into two parts, each consisting of five sections: "Meaning. Textual Studies"

and "Form. Iconographic Studies." In the twelve chapters constituting the first part of the work, the

author reviews the origin and development of the multiplicity convention in the salient literarysources from the Vedic to the post-epic literature. A perceptive analysis of this vast amount of material

reveals that the multiplicity convention appears consistendy in this corpus of literature, beginning from

the Vedic Rudra and the Vedic Purusa. The thesis of the author is that: "a deity associated with cosmic

creation is attributed multiple bodily parts and/or forms" (p. 5). The ideas of cosmic parturition and of

the "Pregnant Male" seem to be the notion underlying the convention of multiplicity in the Rg Veda

and in the Brahmanas. Although the Upsanisads do not focus on the idea of the omniform "Pregnant

Male", the concept is not forgotten. In the epic period, the situation becomes more complex in that

the multiplicity imagery may also be influenced by factors other than the Vedic heritage. Thus the

image of the "Pregnant Male" reveals some Vaisnava and Saiva traits. The next step of the enquiry

considers the question of how the literary image of a creator god, whose womb is replete with life

forms, relates to the multi-limbed images. The answer is the mukhalinga: the heads emanating from

the linga are the first stages of a process which will be completed only when the body/bodies are fully

revealed. The author, however, remarks that this transition, so clear in the Saiva images, is not

evident in the Vaisnava ones- and the problem needs to be further investigated.

Casting her net wider, Srinivasan argues that the multiplicity of convention is not only confined to

the visualisation of deities such as: Siva, Vasudeva-Krsna and the Devi- at least in the early stages of

Indian art.Indeed,

it is a characteristic of Hindumythology

inwhich,

more often thannot,

acycle

of

myths pertaining to one god may have multiple variations on the same core theme. This is in tune

with the cyclic concept of time, by which a deity performs different feats in different ages and can

appear under a particular aspect, suited to that very age. There are many theories which seek to

explain the multiform convention. According to the author, there is a distinction to be made

between the early and later Hindu images endowed with many limbs. The former relate mainly to

theological knowledge or veda: the latter to Wa, or divine play. Pre-Gupta Hindu images are mainly

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A Khotanese Love Story (Review by Degener)