129 Katrin Einicke This Book Dealing with the Marks and Signs Used
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book reviews 129 Katrin Einicke Korrektur, Differenzierung und Abkürzung in indischen Inschriften und Hand- schriften (Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes Band 680), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2009, XI + 505 pp. ISBN 978-3-447-06087-5. €98.00 This book dealing with the marks and signs used mainly for correction and abbreviation is based on an exceptionally vast material. Consequently, it was necessary to select manuscripts and inscriptions from the ocean of the Indian epigraphic and literary traditions. As this PhD thesis submitted to the Univer- sity of Halle grew out of the research project INDOSKRIPT directed by Harry Falk, Berlin, and Walter Slaje, Halle,1 the obvious basis was the material col- lected for this project. In order to present a large variety of scripts used over a wide geographical area and during a lengthy period of time, only a random selection of inscriptions and manuscripts could be examined when building up INDOSKRIPT. One of the more practical reasons for selecting material was of course the accessibility of facsimiles. The scripts were broadly divided into fifteen groups by the author (p. 7 foll.) ranging from Nepal (Newārī) and Kashmir in the north (Śāradā) to Ceylon in the South including also Burma in the east. Older scripts are named simply Brāhmī, and, of course, Grantha is included. The time frame (see table 5, p. 37) stretches from approximately 500ad (Brāhmī inscription) into the early 20th century (Śāradā and Sinhala manuscripts). The general introduction contains useful general information on inscrip- tions and manuscripts, some of which is taken up again at the end of the book (see below). The remark that in India, in contradistinction to a cur- rent practice in medieval Europe, manuscripts generally are lacking or did not need authentication (p. 23 §4.1.2) is contradicted to a certain extent by the Jaina tradition. Copies of the canonical texts as approved by the council at Valabhī were most likely sent to all Śvetāmbara communities.2 Similarly, 1 The results of this important and almost comprehensive presentation of palaeographic mate- rial from inscriptions and manuscripts can be found under the internet address http:// userpage.fu-berlin.de/falk/. 2 According to Ludwig Alsdorf: Les études jaina. État présent et taches futures. Paris 1965, p. 42 = Jaina Studies: Their Present State and Future Tasks, trls. by Bal Patil, rev. and ed. by Willem Bollée [Pandit Nathuram Premi Research Series No. 1]. Bombay 2006, p. 60, cf. also L. Alsdorf: Uttarajjhāyā Studies, IIJ 6. 1962, p. 134 = Kleine Schriften. Wiesbaden 22001, p. 249, Herman Tieken, JIPh 29. 2001, p. 585, and Nalini Balbir: Les lecteurs jaina śvetāmbara face à leur canon, in: Écrire et transmettre en Inde classique, éd. par Gérard Colas et Gerdi Gerschheimer. [École française d’Extrême-Orient. Études thématiques 23]. Paris 2009, pp. 43–62. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2014 | doi: 10.1163/15728536-05701008 130 book reviews several councils were held by Buddhists to establish a correct and authoritative text. The heart of the book comprises the chapters seven to nine (pp. 43–401), in which the material, approximately 900 (!) marks and signs (p. 2), is arranged first according to the respective script (pp. 43–231), then according to their function (correction, insertion, abbreviation, etc., pp. 233–312), and lastly according to the shape of the sign (pp. 313–401). An additional chapter (pp. 403– 426) contains a most useful list of abbreviations such as ba di “bahulapakṣadi- vasa,” which are otherwise not treated in this book.3 All marks and signs are carefully presented in drawings in which different shades of black and grey help to recognize the correction easily (as explained on p. 5 foll.). However, the let- ters corrected are not transcribed, which might create difficulties particularly for readers unfamiliar with Sinhala or Burmese scripts. Scribes and correctors touched upon already in the introduction (pp. 25–35) are discussed again in much more detail at the end in chapter twelve (pp. 427– 473) including excursus on sandhivigraha, sūtradhāra, śilpin, and kāyastha. Here, occasional cross-references might have been useful: The topic of p. 32 note 36, e.g., is taken up again on p. 455. At the very end the results are summarized, and the terminology used is explained. In this context a remark on the word “differentiation” used in the title of the book would have been welcome; perhaps marks helping to avoid misunderstandings (§8.1.3.1–3) are meant. In spite of the fact that a very detailed table of contents safely guides the reader through the overwhelmingly rich material, an index is sometimes missed. For, very valuable remarks such as the very long notes on royal sig- natures (p. 27 note 24: svahasto mama etc.), on dūtaka (p. 28, note 25) or on archives (p. 30 note 31) are easily lost.4 3 Here, “pe”, “la” etc. from the Pāli manuscript tradition could be added, cf. Kate Crosby: Saṅkhepasārasaṅgaha: Abbreviation in Pāli. JPTS 299. 2007, pp. 169–174. Exceptionally, an abbreviation is marked by saṅkhittaṃ, Paṭṭh I (Be) 338,11, cf. O. v. Hinüber: Die Pāli-Hand- schriften des Klosters Lai Hin bei Lampang in Nord-Thailand. [Veröffentlichungen der Indol- ogischen Kommission 2]. Wiesbaden 2013, no. 154, folio go.—Although the use of the different signs to mark abbreviations is most valuable for tracing the descent of manuscripts, this important evidence was destroyed in the reprint of Saṃyuttanikāya Vol. V by the PTS in 2008 (preface p. VI) [rev: J.C. Wright, BSOAS 72. 2009, pp. 183–185; Ch. Werba, WZKS 52/53. 2009/2010, pp. 322–235], where the difference of pe, la, pa carefully noted by Léon Feer as the original editor, was most unfortunately all levelled out into a uniform pe (!!). 4 Good sources on archives and on the actual ceremony accompanying a royal donation are, e.g., the “Greater Leiden Plates” or the “Karandai Sangam Plates”: K.V.Subrahmanya Aiyer: The Indo-Iranian Journal 57 (2014) 105–198.