Festschrift in Honour of the 80th birthday of K. R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th Anniversary in 2006 of the Founding of the Pali Text Society.

• Author: Freiberger, Oliver
• Position: Book review

Festschrift in Honour of the 80th birthday of K. R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th Anniversary in 2006 of the Founding of the Pali Text Society. Edited by O. VON HINUBER, R. M. L. GETHIN, and MARK ALLON. JOURNAL of the Pali Text Society, vol. 29. Bristol: PALI TEXT SOCIETY, 2007. Pp. xiv + 431. [pounds sterling]25.30.

In a book that should be required reading for every student of Indian Buddhism--not only for those who are still in doubt about the tremendous potential of philological analysis--K. R. Norman remarked, "I am in the habit of saying that I know nothing about Buddhism, but I do know a little about some of the words used in Buddhism and some of the languages of Buddhism. I regard one of my purposes in life as being an adviser to those who know a lot about Buddhism, but not a great deal about the languages of Buddhism" (A Philological Approach to Buddhism: The Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Lectures 1994, 2nd ed. [Lancaster: Pali Text Society, 2006], 9). Such understatement by one of the greatest Pali scholars of our time is highly appreciated, but it is difficult not to project into the quote a hint of sarcasm directed at those to whom he generously offers his advice. Norman's decade-spanning research on Middle Indie languages and literatures demonstrates unmistakably that "knowing a lot about Buddhism" without studying its languages is virtually impossible. The book reviewed here honors K, R. Norman's work on the occasion of his 80th birthday and, simultaneously, marks the 125th anniversary of the Pali Text Society, with which he has been involved for many years, e.g., as its president from 1981 to 1994. In his preface, Oskar von Hinuber gives a concise historical review in which he links those "two particularly auspicious events."

The contributors to this rich and substantial volume know a little about "some words and some languages," too. Many of the world's leading scholars in Norman's fields of interest are gathered here. The first article in the book was delivered by Petra Kieffer-Pulz in 2005 as the eleventh I. B. Horner Memorial Lecture ("Stretching the Vinaya Rules and Getting Away with It"). In this lecture the author identifies two methods of "stretching the rules" in the legal tradition of the Theravadins: (1) limiting the scope of application of given vinaya terms, in order to fill the remainder with the desired regulations; and, less common, (2) acknowledging the existing terminology while using different terms for the desired...