Bhagata Nāmadeva in the Guru Grantha by Nirbhai SinghReview by: Charles S. J. WhiteJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 106, No. 4 (Oct. - Dec., 1986), p. 883Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/603613 .

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Brief Reviews of Books 883

scholars. There is an impressive array of data in this volume, and it will be worth the effort for experts on the Ramayana to sift through it for themselves.

RICHARD W. LARIVIERE

UNIVERSITY OrTEXAS

Bhagata Ndmadeva in the Guru Grantha. By NIRBHAI SINGH.

Pp. xiv + 336. Patiala: PUNJABI UNIVERSITY PRESS. 1981. Rs. 45.00.

This work of Professor Singh's deserves our attention because it takes up a little known issue in the area of form criticism in the composition of the sacred scripture of the Sikhs. Our entry into Professor Singh's analysis is provided by the peculiarity of the Sikh scripture of including the mystical utterances in poetry of a diverse group of authors besides the Sikh Gurus themselves, beginning with Nanak. Hence, the poetry of Namadeva, identified also with the Vithoba cult of Maharashtra, is the subject of the work:

The present monograph seeks to present a detailed and critical study of Bhagata Namadeva (A.D. 1270-1350) and his hymns in the perspective of the Guru Granth Sihib (GG). An effort has been made to treat the subject on objective, systematic, and comparative lines without impinging on the core of faith (sraddhd). The monograph aims at bringing out an inter-religious and inter-cultural underlying identity; especially of the metaphysical, and other distinctive features of Nama- deva's hymns. (p. iii)

Assuming that the life story and Marath1 features of Namadeva's writing are reasonably well-known, the present reviewer would recommend especially a consideration of the author's thesis set forth in Chapter V, "The Canoniza- tion of Namadeva's BanT" (pp. 105-191). Nirbhai Singh leads the reader carefully through the whole process of adapting a somewhat "foreign" author's poetry, such as that of NMma- deva, to the scriptural form of the Guru Granth through the stages of (a) "Compilation", (b) "Editing", and (c) "Canoni- zation." In this process Guru Arjunadeva [sic] exercised a kind of genius in rewriting and producing out of hetero- geneous material what can rightly be called a masterpiece or "aesthetic whole."

Herein lies the uniqueness of the Sikh revelation; for Namadeva's language and thought (as examples) have been adapted to the striking point of view of Sikh theology, through the medium of a created idiom, the special Punjabi (and sadhu-bhdsd) of the text, as related to the bhakti of a nirguna deity or Absolute. Namadeva and others were ame-

nable to this adaptation because in certain aspects the Santa form of Hindu bhakti (itself influenced by Sufism) was similar to the doctrines of Guru Nanak and his successors.

CHARLES S. J. WHITE

THE AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Mahibhiisya Pradipa Vyikhyinini. VIII Adhydya S Pdda 1-4; and IX Adhydya 6 Pdda 1-4. Edited by M. S. NARASIMHACHARYA. Pp. 254 and 408. (Publications de l'Institut Franqais d'Indologie, Nos. 51,8 and 51,9.) Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRANyAIS D'INDOLOGIE. 1981 and 1982.

The edition of lesser known commentaries on Patafijali's Mahabhisya and supercommentaries on Kaiyata's Prad1pa continues apace, at the rate of a volume every year since volume II-two years separated the first two instalments. The number of commentaries included in the several volumes has varied, depending on the manuscript evidence available. These latest instalments offer the texts of three commentaries: Ramacandra Saravati's Vivarana-also known as the Laghuvivarna-preserved up to sltra 6.4.64 only, Annam- bhatta's Uddyotana, and Nardyana's Vivarana, better known as the Narayan.1ya. In addition to manuscripts from Adyar, Madras, Pondicherry, Hoshiarpur, and Mysore used in preceding volumes, the editor was able to obtain a micro- film of Nepalese manuscript which provides the most com- plete source found to date for Ramacandra's text beyond the fourth adhyaya.

ROSANE ROCHER

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

Mediaeval History of Nepal (c. 750-1482). Second, thoroughly revised edition. By LUCIANO PETECH. Pp. x + 254. (Serie Orientale Roma, LIX.) Roma: INSTITUTO ITALIANO PER IL MEDIO ED ESTREMO ORIENTE. 1984. Lire 40.000.

Scholars of Nepalese culture and history will be pleased to see that the second edition of Petech's book has appeared, which, ever since it was first published in 1958, has been the most important and indispensible work on the history of Ancient and Mediaeval Nepal. When compiling this history, the author drew on all possible sources, such as colophons, genealogies/chronicles (vamSaval-, inscriptions and foreign documents, but the work is based mainly on manuscript colophons, which, as he states on p. 9, are "the most copious and reliable material for the chronology of the period".

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