Much Ado about Religion (Clay Sanskrit Library)

321 Pages·2005·0.9 MB·English

by  Bhatta Jayanta

THECLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY
FOUNDEDBYJOHN&JENNIFERCLAY
EDITEDBY
RICHARDGOMBRICH
WWW.CLAYSANSKRITLIBRARY.COM
WWW.NYUPRESS.ORG
Copyright(cid:2)c 2005bytheCSL.
Allrightsreserved.
FirstEdition2005
TheClaySanskritLibraryisco-publishedby
NewYorkUniversityPress
andtheJJCFoundation.
Furtherinformationaboutthisvolume
andtherestoftheClaySanskritLibrary
isavailableonthefollowingWebsites:
www.claysanskritlibrary.com
www.nyupress.org.
ISBN0-8147-1979-1
ArtworkbyRobertBeer.
CoverdesignbyIsabelleOnians.
Layout&typesettingbySomadevaVasudeva.
PrintedinGreatBritainbyStEdmundsburyPressLtd,
BuryStEdmunds,Suffolk,onacid-freepaper.
BoundbyHunter&FoulisLtd,Edinburgh,Scotland.
Much Ado
About
Religion
by Bhatta Jayanta
. .
EDITEDANDTRANSLATEDBY
CSABADEZSO˝
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
JJC FOUNDATION
2005
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
JayantaBhat.t.a,fl.850–910.
A¯gamad.ambara.English
Muchadoaboutreligion/byJayantaBhatta;
editedandtranslatedbyCsabaDezso˝.
p.cm.–(TheClaySanskritlibrary)
TranslatedfromSanskrit.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN0-8147-1979-1(cloth)
1.Sanskritdrama.2.Nya¯ya–Drama.
I.Dezso˝,Csaba.II.Title.III.Series.
II.Title.III.Series.
PK3794.J3472A7132005
891’.22–dc222004026265
Contents
Sanskritalphabeticalorder 7
CSLconventions 7
MUCHADOABOUTRELIGION
Introduction 13
DramatisPersonæ 27
Prologue:Disillusion 30
PreludetoActOne:TheBuddha’sTeaching 40
ActOne:TheBuddhistsDefeated 52
PreludetoActTwo:LustfulAscetics 84
ActTwo:TheFeastofDispassion 98
PreludetoActThree:PanicamongtheFearless 128
ActThree:ReligionDeniedandDefended 140
PreludetoActFour:OrthodoxImpostures 192
ActFour:QualifiedTolerance 202
ParaphraseofPrakrit(Cha¯ya¯) 255
Notes 271
Bibliography 296
Index 305
Asandhigridisprintedontheinsideofthebackcover

sanskritalphabeticalorder
Vowels: aa¯i¯ıuu¯.r.¯r.l.¯leaioaum. h.
Gutturals: kkhgghn˙
Palatals: cchjjhn˜
Retroflex: .t.thd. d.hn.
Labials: pphbbhm
Semivowels: yrlv
Spirants: ´s.ssh
guidetosanskritpronunciation
a but k luck
a¯,aˆ rather kh blockhead
i sit g go
¯ı,ˆı fee gh bighead
u put n˙ anger
u¯,uˆ boo c chill
.r vocalicr,Americanpurdy ch matchhead
orEnglishpretty j jog
.¯r lengthened.r jh aspiratedj,hedgehog
.l vocalicl,able n˜ canyon
e,ˆe,¯e made,esp.inWelshpro- .t retroflex t, try (with the
nunciation tip of tongue turned up
ai bite totouchthehardpalate)
o,oˆ,o¯rope,esp.Welshpronun- .th sameastheprecedingbut
ciation;Italiansolo aspirated
au sound d. retroflex d (with the tip
m. anusva¯ranasalizesthepre- of tongue turned up to
cedingvowel touchthehardpalate)
h. visarga,avoicelessaspira- d.h sameastheprecedingbut
tion(resemblingEnglish aspirated
h),orlikeScottishloch,or n. retroflex n (with the tip
anaspirationwithafaint of tongue turned up to
echoingofthepreceding touchthehardpalate)
vowelsothattaih. ispro- t Frenchtout
nouncedtaihi th tenthook
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muchadoaboutreligion
d dinner r trilled,resemblingtheIta-
dh guildhall lianpronunciationofr
n now l linger
v word
p pill
´s shore
ph upheaval .s retroflexsh(withthetip
b before
ofthetongueturnedup
bh abhorrent totouchthehardpalate)
m mind s hiss
y yes h hood
cslpunctuationofenglish
TheacuteaccentonSanskritwordswhentheyoccuroutsideofthe
Sanskrittextitself,marksstress,e.g.Rama´yana.Itisnotpartoftra-
ditionalSanskritorthography,transliterationortranscription,butwe
supplyitheretoguidereadersinthepronunciationoftheseunfamiliar
words.SincenoSanskritwordisaccentedonthelastsyllableitisnot
necessarytoaccentdisyllables,e.g.Rama.
ThesecondCSLinnovationdesignedtoassistthereaderinthepro-
nunciationoflengthyunfamiliarwordsistoinsertanunobtrusivemid-
dledotbetweensemanticwordbreaksincompoundnames(provided
thewordbreakdoesnotfallonavowelresultingfromthefusionof
twovowels),e.g.Maha·bha´rata,butRama´yana(notRama·a´yana).Our
dotechoesthepunctuatingmiddledot(·)foundintheoldestsurviv-
ingsamplesofwrittenSanskrit,theAshokaninscriptionsofthethird
centurybce.
ThedeeplayeringofSanskritnarrativehasalsodictatedthatweuse
quotationmarksonlytoannouncethebeginningandendofeverydirect
speech,andnotatthebeginningofeveryparagraph.
cslpunctuationofsanskrit
TheSanskrittextisalsopunctuated,inaccordancewiththepunc-
tuationoftheEnglishtranslation.Inmid-verse,thepunctuationwill
notalterthesandhiorthescansion.Propernamesarecapitalized,asare
theinitialwordsofverses(orparagraphsinprosetexts).MostSanskrit
8
cslconventions
metreshavefour“feet”(pa¯da):wherepossibleweprintthecommon
´slokametreontwolines.Thecapitalizationofversebeginningsmakes
iteasyforthereadertorecognizelongermetreswhereitisnecessaryto
printthefourmetricalfeetoverfouroreightlines.IntheSanskrittext,
we use French Guillemets (e.g. «kva sam.cic¯ır.suh.?») instead of English
quotationmarks(e.g.“Whereareyouoffto?”)toavoidconfusionwith
theapostrophesusedforvowelelisioninsandhi.
Sanskritpresentsthelearnerwithachallenge:sandhi(“euphoniccom-
bination”).Sandhimeansthatwhentwowordsarejoinedinconnected
speechorwriting(whichinSanskritreflectsspeech),thelastletter(or
evenletters)ofthefirstwordoftenchanges;comparethewaywepro-
nounce“the”in“thebeginning”and“theend.”
InSanskritthefirstletterofthesecondwordmayalsochange;andif
boththelastletterofthefirstwordandthefirstletterofthesecondare
vowels,theymayfuse.ThishasaparallelinEnglish:anasalconsonantis
insertedbetweentwovowelsthatwouldotherwisecoalesce:“apear”and
“anapple.”Sanskritvowelfusionmayproduceambiguity.Thechartat
thebackofeachbookgivesthefullsandhisystem.
Fortunatelyitisnotnecessarytoknowthesechangesinordertostart
readingSanskrit.Forthat,whatisimportantistoknowtheformofthe
secondwordwithoutsandhi(pre-sandhi),sothatitcanberecognized
orlookedupinadictionary.ThereforeweareprintingSanskritwitha
systemofpunctuationthatwillindicate,unambiguously,theoriginal
formofthesecondword,i.e.,theformwithoutsandhi.Suchsandhi
mostlyconcernsthefusionoftwovowels.
InSanskrit,vowelsmaybeshortorlongandarewrittendifferently
accordingly. We follow the general convention that a vowel with no
markaboveitisshort.Otherbooksmarkalongvoweleitherwitha
barcalledamacron(a¯)orwithacircumflex(aˆ).Oursystemusesthe
macron, except that for initial vowels in sandhi we use a circumflex
toindicatethatoriginallythevowelwasshort,ortheshorteroftwo
possibilities(eratherthanai,oratherthanau).
Whenweprintinitialaˆ,beforesandhithatvowelwasa
ˆıorˆe, i
uˆoroˆ, u
aˆi, e
9