Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles-Review by Cabezón

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Review of Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles, by José Cabezón

Review

Śāntideva's Life and Cultural World

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Śāntideva, by Amalia Pezzali, presents us with quite an exhaustive account of the life and works of this great Indian Buddhist saint, at the same time providing the reader with a good general summary of his thought. Ms. Pezzali organizes the book into three sections of approximately equal length. The first, entitled "La vie" (The Life), presents the accounts of three major Tibetan historians as well as the only known Sanskrit version of Śāntideva's biography. Though most of the translations of historical and textual passages given in this work have previously appeared in Western languages, it is convenient to have the major biographical accounts (by Bu-ston, Tāranātha, Sum-pa mKhan-po and an anonymous Nepali manuscript) presented side by side in the original languages for easy reference. In addition to the translations, the author discusses the differences among the four accounts, and finally summarizes the data in tabular form. Yet for the tremendous work that was obviously done in editing and translating the biographical sources, one would have expected more discussion of a text-critical sort, especially with regard to redaction criticism. With the wealth of textual material examined, it seems logical to expect a substantial body of conclusions as regards the sources used by the above historians. Yet Ms. Pezzali concludes only that Tāranātha and Sum-pa must have used Bu-ston (p. 21), and that Sum-pa must also have had before him a copy of Tāranātha (p. 26). Given the dates of these scholars, the result can be hardly surprising. It seems to me that other conclusions are evident. For one, Tāranātha must have drawn on a source other than Bu-ston (viz. the gazelle episode, which is found in the former but not in the latter). Also, Sum-pa must have drawn on a source different from both Bu-ston and Taranatha (viz. his mention of Kaliṅga which is missing in the other two historians' accounts - p. 26). But statements of this sort are left implicit in Ms. Pezzali's analysis and never brought to light. I must, however, point out that the amount of data presented by the author does make it possible for the interested scholar to pursue such questions individually. The translations, I might add, are generally of a superior quality, reflecting Ms. Pezzali's obvious expertise in Tibetan and Sanskrit. (Cabezón, "Review," 115) Read more here

Citation

Cabezón, José. Review of Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles, by Amalia Pezzali. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 3, no. 1 (1980): 115–17. https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8513/2420.

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Pezzali, Amalia. Śāntideva: Mystique Bouddhiste des VIIe et VIIIe siècles. Florence: Vallecchi Editore, 1968.

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Amalia Pezzali presents an exhaustive account of the life and works of the great Indian Buddhist saint Śāntideva while providing a good general summary of his thought.