Studies in Hinduism III

Following the first two volumes of “Studies in Hinduism” that discuss the relationship between the Vedic and the Hindu religions and the phenomenon of Tantra, this third volume deals with the religious traditions of Pāñcarātra and Viśiṣṭādvaitavedānta. The first three contributions examine the transmission of the texts of Pāñcarātra. M. RASTELLI illustrates how the text of the Pārameśvarasaṃhitā was compiled from earlier Pāñcarātra works by means of the conception of the throne(āsana) that is used for the worship of God. M. CZERNIAK-DROŻDŻOWICZ describes the eight-fold religious practice of a Pāñcarātric devotee, which constitutes a structural element of the text of the Paramasaṃhitā. Thematically related, G. OBERHAMMER’s contribution on Pāñcarātra deals with the structure and the content of the twenty-fourth chapter of the Paramasaṃhitā, which describes the vidvatpūjā, the “worship [performed] by a wise one”. The volume’s other three papers are devoted to the tradition of Viśiṣṭādvaitavedānta, which is historically closely related to the Pāñcarātra. G. OBERHAMMER discusses Meghanādārisūri’s concept of the goddess and its position in the history of ideas of the Rāmānuja school. H. MARLEWICZ deals with the Viśiṣṭādvaitavedānta polemics against the advaitic akhaṇḍavākyārtha theory. M. SCHMÜCKER describes the Rāmānuja school’s criticism of the advaitic teaching on the perceptibility of the being as such (sanmātra).