Aurobindo and Zaehner on the Bhagavad-Gītā. By Yvonne Williams and Michael McElvaney. (The Sanskrit Tradition in the Modern World.) pp. iv, 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, S.Y. Killingley, distrib. by Grevatt and Grevatt, 1988. £4.00.

Abstract

The volume is concluded by an appendix discussing firstly "The status and purpose of grammar" a section which in some ways might best have figured as an introduction to the volume and thus to the whole work and secondly "Terms for the language described and for the grammar and its components" (which begins with Hanuman's use of the term samskrtSm vacant when musing how to address Slta, at Rdmdyana 5.28.18, which Cardona regards as probably the first use of the term with reference specifically to a language, a view by which I am not wholly convinced). The ending is indeed rather abrupt, if this volume is taken in isolation, but of course it is itself the introductory volume to the much more comprehensive survey which is to follow and for which it is meant to provide the basis. Full discussion of various interpretations of Panini's work, with the arguments presented by various Paninlyas, is promised for subsequent volumes. It should be noted that, though introductory in the sense just outlined, the present volume is by no means basic in the level at which it is presented. It is scarcely an introduction to Panini for students but rather a preliminary statement by one scholar for others, laying the groundwork for still more advanced discussion of the subject. Consequently, reading it is demanding but amply rewarded by the clarity of the presentation given. The text of the volume has been prepared by the author on computer and printed directly from its output. One minor by-product of this method of production has been the ability to include the text of the sutras in both devandgarT and in transliteration on the same line. More importantly, it has kept the number of misprints down to very minor proportions; it has not entirely eliminated them but it has ensured that they are not serious (and indeed in many cases self-correcting, as for instance in the first two noticed: the citations of 2.1.3 and 1.1.45 on pp. 13 and 19 respectively, where the transliterated text corrects the devandgart). The appearance is not quite equal to the best of printed texts but is well above the general standard of Indian books, and the relative freedom from misprints is an important point in favour of this mode of production; Cardona deserves our thanks for the labour involved in producing such a clean text to reproduce. The subject matter, though, is more important than the form and here, while any complete assessment must await the remainder of this major undertaking, it is already clear that Cardona is placing us all in his debt once again by the range and comprehensiveness of his scholarship in Paninian studies, as well as by the clarity of his exposition.