Eclecticism and Modern Hindu Discourse.

• Author: Sharma, Arvind
• Position: Review

Eclecticism and Modern Hindu Discourse. By BRIAN A. HATCHER. New York: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1999. Pp. xi + 200. $45.

This book is a sensitive, subtle, and catholic meditation on eclecticism as a category in the study of religion, using modern Hindu discourse as a test case. It elucidates the discussion by comparing and contrasting eclecticism with allied concepts such as skepticism (to which it is an alternative) and syncretism (with which it is sometimes confused). Similarly, while using modern Hindu discourse as its staple, it also includes comparative (late Roman, modern Western) and interdisciplinary (architectural) perspectives. It is also refreshingly restrained in its conclusions.

In this review I shall first critically address the issue of modern Hindu discourse as presented by the author and then (re-)evaluate its significance for the conclusions reached on eclecticism.

The author claims that modern Hindu discourse, in its quest for eclecticism, departs considerably from "traditional" Hinduism. I would like to claim the contrary, that efforts to sustain such a claim tend to exaggerate the discontinuity between neo-Hindu and orthodox Hindu positions on certain issues. (1) It is claimed that the "knowledge of Brahman [as] accessible to everyone... is somewhat against the traditional grain" (p. 118). The operative word is somewhat here, for even in traditional Advaita such knowledge is accessible to everyone through smrti (see Sankara on Brahmasutra 1.3.38) and direct experience of Brahman within this life is also possible without recourse to sruti (see Sankara on Brahmastra 1.1.30). (2) It is claimed that Vivekananda mistakenly alludes to the Vaisesika school in the context of sabdapramana (p. 62). However:

Prasastapada, an author of the Vaisesika school mentions another kind of knowlege--arsa jnana. It is the knowledge of seers, the promulgators of scriptural tradition (amnaya-vidhata) which is generated by the contact of atman and the mind, and by a peculiar quality. It is of the nature of intuition (pratibha) [sic] and the divine sages have it in perfection. [1]

Sankara uses the expression arsajnana verbatim in his gloss on Brahmasutra I.1.30.(3) The provisionality of Buddha's teaching, as illustrated by the parable of the raft is recognized (pp. 168-69) but a similar recognition within Advaita of the mithyatva of the Vedas goes unnoticed (see Sankara on Brahmasutra IV.1.3). (4) The Buddha's disregard for mere learning is...