Researches in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy: Essays in Honour of Professor Alex Wayman.

• Author: Gerow, Edwin

This Festschrift, dedicated to one of the most original and controversial scholars of our day, contains a number of important papers by a distinguished panoply of Indianists. The papers testify, in their seriousness, to the respect in which the honoree is held.

The selection is unusually wide-ranging. The papers are grouped into five sections, three of which are "Buddhist" (on "Karma," on "Dependent Origination," and on "Miscellaneous" subjects), one each "Jain" and "Hindu." With a perhaps tongue-in-cheek sense of Buddhist notions of "order," the "miscellaneous" section begins the volume - and here are found some of the best papers, including those of Andre Bareau, on Asanga's list of the asamskrtadharmah; Hajime Nakamura, on "The Seven Principles of the Vajjian Republic"; and Michael Hahn, who provides an extensive and very circumspect critique of Mark Tatz's views on Candragomin. The three substantial papers on karma are by Shinjo Kawasaki, Had Shankar Prasad, and T. R. Sharma. Particularly worthy of note are the three on "dependent origination": Akira Hirakawa's on the relation between dhatu and pratityasamutpada; Collett Cox's lengthy review of the treatment of that notion in Sarvastivadin abhidharma texts, and George R. Elder's discussion of it in Buddhist Tantra. Padmanabha Jaini and M. A. Dhaky grace the Jaina section with essays on Bhavasena (with text and translation of his Bhuktivicara) and the Dasavaikalika Sutra. The "Hindu" section is quite amorphous - again, an ironic comment...