Āryadeva's Catuḥśataka: On the Bodhisattva's Cultivation of Merit and Knowledge by Karen

Lang
Review by: James P. McDermott
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 108, No. 2 (Apr. - Jun., 1988), pp. 331-332
Published by: American Oriental Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603680 .
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 Reviews of Books
tale which, according to Klaus, exists in a total of twelve
additional versions in nine other texts. In addition to the
version in the Divya-vaddna, Sanskrit versions are to be
found in the Avaddnasataka, the Mahdkarmavibhanga, and
the Avaddnakalpalatd of Ksemendra. Four further versions
of the tale are to be found in the Pali Jataka-three of these,
under the title "Mittavindajataka,"apparently being fragmen-
tary versions of the fourth, the "Catudvarajataka." Finally,
four additional versions of the story are to be found in the
Chinese Tripitaka (T 152, T 190, T 203, and T 2121).
In brief, the story concerns Maitrakanyaka, the son of a
merchant, who abuses his mother when she unsuccessfully
tries to prevent him from embarking on a trading voyage.
Once at sea, the ship is becalmed. Lots are cast to determine
the cause. Being thus identified as the source of the problem,
Maitrakanyaka is cast adrift, eventually coming ashore on
an island inhabited by four beautiful apsaras. After enjoying
himself there for a time, he passes further south, coming one
after the other to a series of even richer islands each inhabited
by more numerous apsaras than the one before. At last he
encounters a man carrying a red-hot iron wheel on his head
as punishment for having abused his own mother. After the
cause of his torment has been revealed, the wheel is thrown
up as by a great wind and transferred to the head of
Maitrakanyaka who, in turn, must bear the affliction for the
past mistreatment of his mother.
Based on a 1980 Master's thesis, the present volume
includes a definitive edition of the Sanskrit text of the MKA
together with a German translation.
The story is not without its artistic representations-one
from Kushana, for example, having been described by
Griinwedel in his Alt-Kutscha, Teil II. Klaus helpfully
includes a brief summary of its scenes together with repro-
ductions in the form of rough line drawings.
The edition is further accompanied by a verse index and
bibliography.
A lengthy introduction focuses on the authorship of the
tale as found in the Divydvaddna. It "presents a comparative
analysis of the use of metres, vocabulary, grammar, formal
structure and style in the MKA and in Gopadatta's legends"
(p. 103) with a view toward testing Michael Hahn's theory
that the MKA was composed by Gopadatta. Correspon-
dences in structure, style, and vocabulary between the MKA
and Gopadatta's other tales lend probability to Hahn's view
according to Klaus. Nonetheless, grammatical considerations
prevent a definitive conclusion as to his authorship of MKA.
A two page English summary of the argument is included.
Though limited in scope, this brief work is a welcome
addition to the growing body of scholarship on popular
Buddhist tales.
JAMES P. McDERMOTT
CANISIUS COLLEGE
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331
Aryadeva's Catuhsataka: On the Bodhisattva's Cultivation
of Merit and Knowledge. By KAREN LANG. Pp. 208.
(Indiske Studier VII.) Copenhagen: AKADEMISK FORLAG.
1986.
Aryadeva was an eminent disciple of the Buddhist philoso-
pher Nagdrjuna, the founder of the Madhyamika school.
According to traditional biographical sources, Aryadeva
became so hated as a result of his harsh criticism of other
schools of thought that he was eventually assassinated by
an opponent of his views. Lang dates Aryadeva's literary
activity to between 225 and 250 C.E., his most celebrated
work being the Catuhsataka.
Building upon and moving beyond the work of such
scholars as Haraprasad Shastri, P. L. Vaidya, Vidhusekhara
Bhattacharya, and G. Tucci, Lang has produced a new
edition of the Catuhsataka, including both the Tibetan ver-
sion and surviving Sanskrit fragments. The texts are supple-
mented by a careful English translation, Sanskrit and Tibetan
indices, and a concordance correlating chapter and verse of
the Catuhsataka with the Derge and Peking editions of the
text.
Originally composed in Sanskrit, the Catuhsataka is made
up of four hundred kdrikas divided into sixteen chapters of
twenty-five kdrikas each. Sanskrit commentaries on the
Catuhataka include the Bodhisattvayogacdracatuhsatakatikd
of Candrakirti and a commentary on Chapters IX-XVI by
Dharmapdla. Neither the original nor the commentaries are
fully extant in Sanskrit, although fragmentary remains of
the text do survive. Furthermore, the complete text and
Candrakirti's commentary exist in Tibetan translation. In
addition, according to Lang, there is a Chinese translation of
both Chapters IX-XVI of the text (Taish6 1570) and
Dharmapala's commentary. Some question exists concerning
the identification of the Chinese version with the Catuhsa-
taka, however. This doubt stems from the incompleteness of
the text coupled with the fact that the topics are treated in
different order than in the Tibetan translation. In light of
these differences, A. G. S. Kariyawasam writing in G. P.
Malalasekera's Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Vol. II, fasc. 1,
p. 113) argues that Taisho 1570 is not, in fact, to be
identified as a partial translation of the CatuhSataka. After
carefully spelling out both the similarities and the differences
which must serve as evidence in determining the relationship
between the two versions, Lang concludes otherwise. It is the
inclusion of this evidence which constitutes the most impor-
tant contribution of Lang's Introduction.
The CatuhSatakais both an important and philosophically
interesting text concerning "the disciplined conduct (yoga-
carya) of a bodhisattva.... The first eight chapters discuss
the accumulation of merit; the latter eight the accumulation
of knowledge" (p. 16), merit and knowledge together bring-
ing about Buddhahood. Aryadeva begins in the first four
332 Journal of the American Oriental Society 108.2 (1988)
chapters by showing how to abandon the view that things
are permanent, pleasant, pure, and possessed of a real and
substantial self. Chapter 5 deals with the bodhisattva's con-
cern for others, while Chapters 6-8 deal with the elimination
of karma and the klesas, and the resulting end of the cycle of
death and rebirth. In the last eight chapters, "Aryadeva
critically examines the defects of his opponents' philosophical
systems" (p. 19). Belief in a variety of things as permanent,
including various forms of belief in a permanent self and
belief in the permanence of time, is refuted in Chapters 9-1 1.
Chapters 13 and 14 focus on the operation of perception and
the reality of the objects of perception, while in Chapter 15
Aryadeva turns to a consideration of the reality of con-
ditioned phenomena and their marks. This whole discussion
is aimed at underscoring the Mddhyamika conception of
emptiness, which becomes the direct focus in the final chapter
of the text. In the course of his treatise, Aryadeva refutes the
opinions of a variety of Buddhist and non-Buddhist systems
including those of Nydya-Vaigesika, Sdmkhya, and the
Abhidharmikas. While written from the Mddhyamika point
of view, the work is particularly useful for the light it sheds
on the philosophical debates of such texts as the Abhi-
dharmakosa and the Kathdvatthu.
JAMES P. MCDERMOTT
CANISIUS COLLEGE
Hindu Goddesses: Visions of the Divine Feminine in the
Hindu Religious Tradition. DAVID KINSLEY. Pp. viii + 281;
14 plates. Berkeley: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS.
1986. $35.00.
As curricula become more sensitive to women's issues, and
as the general reader feels a greater need of introductions to
cultural phenomena not his own, the demand will grow for
books like this. David Kinsley's new contribution is a useful
compendium of information on the mythology of Hindu
goddesses from Vedic through medieval times. Using literary
sources from the disparate but still mainstream elements of
the Indian tradition, the author has compiled a reference
book of themes, images, and rituals which shows the variety
and often contradictory nature of the feminine as divine in
India. Although most of the goddesses examined are, by the
author's own admission, from the "great tradition"-e.g.,
SrY-Laksmli,Pdrvatli, Sarasvati, Sltd, Radha, Durga, KWl
and Devi-there is some attention paid to purely contextual
beliefs and practices, as well as to the recently revived
recognition of the sacred as geographically specific.
Although the book deals primarily with mythology and
not with sociology or philosophy, the myths by implication
cannot avoid raising issues outside the mainly descriptive
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focus of the study. The book notes, for example, that the
resolution in tension between Pdrvat! and Siva has impor-
tant theological and personal consequences; that central to
the conception of Sarasvati are the wider-ramificationsof the
religious uses of speech; that the intricate balance between
kingship and the fertility of the earth underscores the Sltd-
Rama story; and that the variety of conversion techniques
suggested by the Kali myths prove prototypical for move-
ments of religious renewal.
Kinsley's discussion of these and other issues is thorough
and to the point, though often brief and summary. In places,
however, one wishes that the need for analysis were taken
more seriously. What does one make, for example, of the fact
that the Vedic goddesses are only minor figures in the divine
pattern, that none of them are central to myths of the Aryan
nation or to the practice of the yajia, or that they are
excluded from the nascent theism (e.g., Varuna) of the Veda?
Again, how does Rddha's relationship with Krsna compare
to other patterns of conversion within the Krsna "biography,"
and how is the identity between Rddha and Krsna expressive
of the spiritual advancement of the self, especially as it
involves the poet as ideal bhakta? Finally, when Durgd is
said to provide "a version of reality that potentially, at least,
may be refreshing and socially invigorating" (p. 99), an
outline of that reality, as accessible particularly to modern
Indian women, would be appropriate.
More generally, however, analysis of some larger issues is
necessary in a work of this type. One would expect to have
substantial discussion, for example, of the nature of the
consort as both mythological image and theological para-
digm; of the structural differences between married and
unmarried goddesses and the role in this structure of adul-
tery; of the Indian emphasis on divine woman as "wife"
rather than as "mother";of the powerful issue of sexuality in
which, for example, the act of conception is celebrated while
that of birth is downgraded-the opposite being true, one
might argue, in Christian mythology; and of the relationship
between the divine ideals for women and the corresponding
social realities.
The primarily descriptive character of the book could be
strengthened, moreover, if less emphasis were placed on the
work of others, especially on existing translations in English,
and more on new data, such as visual images, dance, or
recently recovered oral traditions. While all the expected
primary sources are here, as well as such well-known
secondary studies as that of Mary Douglas, there are no
surprises in the bibliography. The derivative nature of the
book is further emphasized by the quality of the repro-
ductions; better images could have been made from photo-
graphs supplied directly by the owners of the objects rather
than from already published versions.
Nevertheless, the work is a valuable sourcebook for
students of the Indian tradition. Its presentation of the