8/11/2019 Review of Yantracintāmaṇi of Dāmodara by Hans-Georg Türstig

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Yantracintāmaṇi of Dāmodara by Hans-Georg TürstigReview by: J. L. BrockingtonJournal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1989), p. 354Published by: Cambridge University Press

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8/11/2019 Review of Yantracintāmaṇi of Dāmodara by Hans-Georg Türstig

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/review-of-yantracintamai-of-damodara-by-hans-georg-tuerstig 2/2

354

REVIEWS

OF

BOOKS

Yantracintamani

of

Damodara.

Critically

edited

by

Hans-Georg

Turstig.

(Beitrage

zur

Siidasienforschung,

Siidasien-Institut,

Universitat

Heidelberg,

Band

121.) pp.

171,

79

drawings.

Stuttgart,

Franz Steiner

Verlag

Wiesbaden

GmbH,

1988. DM 46.

This work by Damodara deals, as its usual title of Yantracintamani suggests, with the yantras

used in the

practice

of abhicdra

or

magic

and these

seem

to

derive

from

a

considerably

older

period

than

the work

itself,

which its

editor

suggests

may

have been

composed

in

the

seventeenth

century.

Its

significance

may

be

gauged

by

the fact that vernacular manuals

on

the

subject

are

based

on

this

work rather than

on

any

other. The

work has

been

printed

before,

but

in

editions

apparently

based

on

single

manuscripts,

in

one

of

which it is

accompanied

by

a

poor

translation

(Narendra

Nath Sharma's

1973

edition under

the

title

Kalpacintamani);

five

printed

texts

have

been utilised

by

Turstig

in this

critical edition

alongside

ten

manuscripts.

Turstig

considers that

his

manuscripts

A-E form

one

group

and F-H

another,

but he adds that

it would be

exaggerated

especially

in

view

of

the

rather

loose

style

of the

text,

to

speak

of

different

recensions ,

while

not

making

any

comment

on

the

alignment

of

his other

two

manuscripts.

All

but

one

of these

manuscripts

come

from

collections

within

Maharashtra

and

the sole

exception

(MS.H

from

the SarasvatI Mahal

Library

at

Tanjore)

is

thought

by

Turstig

to

have been written

by

a

Maharashtrian

scribe,

but

he does

not comment

on

the

possible

implications

of

this

in his

all

too brief

introduction,

which consists of six

pages

of

description

of

the editions and

manuscripts

and

two

and

a

half

on

the character of

the

work

and

its

author.

However,

he has

already

provided

much

background

elsewhere

in his

article

The Indian

sorcery

called Abhicara

(WZKS

29, 1985,

pp. 69-117),

which

can

usefully

be consulted

alongside

the

present

work. In that earlier

work he mentions

receiving

a

xerox

copy

of

the

manuscript

here

identified

as

AD

(since

it is identified

internally

as

the

Abhicdradipika

of

Ramacandra

Vaidya)

but the

description

in his edition does

not

make clear

whether

this has

been

superseded

by

direct

study

of the

manuscript,

as seems

to

be the

case.

The

edited

text

is

printed

in romanised

transliteration

(on pp.

15-59),

followed

by

the Critical

Apparatus

(on

pp.

61-166);

each variant

reading

is

signalled

in the

text

by

a

superscript figure

and

given

on a

separate

line in

the

apparatus,

even

if it is

only

one

word

long. Apart

from the

inconvenience

of

having

to

refer back

and forth all

the

time,

which

I

for

one

find

irritating,

this

layout

does

seem

to be

somewhat

wasteful of

space,

although

certainly

the

apparatus

would

be

quite

bulky,

however it

was

arranged.

The last

few

pages

(pp.

167-171)

contain

some

additional

material

contained,

in

two

versions,

in four of the

printed

texts;

here the much

briefer

apparatus

is

placed

at

the foot of the

relevant

page.

There

then follow 37

pages

(unnumbered)

of

reproductions

of

all the

79

yantras

treated

in the

text,

in

each

instance

drawn from several

of the

editions

and

manuscripts

used. While

it

undoubtedly

enhances

the work

to

illustrate the

yantras

(even

though

the

original

version

probably

lacked

them),

it is less clear

that

multiple

reproductions

are

needed,

when

the main

variable

seems

to

be

the

dexterity

of

the

scribe

concerned. It might have been more helpful if some discussion of these drawings had been

included

in

the

present

volume.

The

critical

text

itself

has been

prepared

with

care

and shows

a

suitably

cautious

approach,

although

again

more

discussion

of the

principles

adopted

in the selection

of

readings

would have

been

welcome.

Regrettably,

the

standard

of

printing

is

not

commensurate.

The

superscript

and

subscript

dots

are

set

so

far

away

from

the characters

that

at

times

they

clash

with each other.

More

seriously,

there

are a

significant

number

of

misprints,

for

example

daily

ta

(1.3b)

and

'nvaajisin

(1.4d)

in

the first few

verses.

While these

are

blemishes

on

the

volume,

they

do

not

lessen its undoubted

value

as

the first

properly

edited

text

of this work.

In the article

already

mentioned,

Turstig

says

that he

is

planning

a

critical

edition and

translation;

although

there

is

no

mention

of

a

translation

in the

present

volume

and the

work has

already

been translated

into

French

by

Jean Riviere

(Milan, 1976),

we

may perhaps hope

that

Turstig

is still

intending

to

produce

one,

for it

would

be

a

considerable

further

aid

to

the

understanding

of this work.

J. L. Brockington

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