208 REVIEWS OF BOOKS

1967 volume of JRAS (pp. 39^42). A volume of indexes, classified by languages and compiled
by Lady Turner, appeared in 1969 (reviewed in JRAS 1970, pp. 80-81), and in 1971 a further
volume was published, which was devoted to the phonetic analysis of sound units in the
head-words in CDIAL. This had been prepared by computer.
CDIAL rapidly became the standard reference book for all research work in the field of the
comparative grammar and phonology of the Indo-Aryan languages, since a simple reference to
a head-word by number automatically gave access to all the cognate words known. In this
function it replaced Turner's own Nepali Dictionary (London 1931), which despite the apparent
limitation of its title in fact included at the end of each word article a wide range of cognate
words in other Indo-Aryan languages. Even after the publication of his life's work Turner
continued to collect material for a volume of addenda and corrigenda. His intention had been
to leave this material on deposit in the library of the School of Oriental and African Studies,
where it could be consulted by scholars, if publication proved impossible. At the age of 93,
however, when his eyesight was failing, he learned that funds for the publication of such a
volume might be forthcoming, and he began to make the new attestations and etymologies he
had noted and indexed on some 12,000 slips ready for the printer.
Sadly Turner died on 22 April 1983 at the age of 94. Until a few days before his death he was
still engaged upon a final revision of the volume. After his death the task of completing the
preparation for printing was undertaken by Professor J. C. Wright, whose assistance in the
preparation of CDIAL itself was acknowledged by Turner in the Preface to that work, and whose
original contributions both to CDIAL and to this volume of Addenda are marked by the initials
J.C.W. Readers will owe him an immense debt of gratitude for the care and effort which he has
bestowed upon the task. This is perhaps the place to express the hope that he will now take upon
himself the responsibility for collecting material for the further volume of addenda which will
undoubtedly be called for in due course.
This volume includes not only all Turner's new material, listed under the head-words and
numbers of CDIAL, with new head-words marked by an obelisk (pp. 1-113), but it also
incorporates in their correct alphabetical position the Addenda and Corrigenda which were
published at the end of the final part of CDIAL (pp. 821-41). A supplement (pp. 114-17) lists
words from r- to h- in the Kacchi dialect of Sindhi, which presumably arrived too late to be
included in their proper places. Indexes for all these new entries have been made (pp. 120-51),
and over 400 new head-words have been analysed phonetically (pp. 154-68), but manually rather
than by computer "for economy of effort".
For the most part, the new material has been collected from sources which were not available
at an earlier date, such as H. Hendriksen's Vocabulary of Himachali, C. H. B. Reynolds' Mal-
divian Vocabulary, J. D. Smith's Glossary and Index of Old Rajastham in his edition of the
Vtsaladevarasa, and the Old Panjabi material from C. Shackle's Guru (the spelling Gutu on p.
xi and the numeral 147 twice listed for 149 on p. ix are the only printing errors so far noted)
Nanak Glossary. Details about these and other sources are given in Turner's Preface, Wright's
Editorial Note and the List of books and journals consulted (pp. v-xi). A somewhat disconcert-
ing feature of the last of these is the adoption of SZII and Tau as the abbreviations for Studien
zur Indologie und Iranistik and Indologia Taurinensia respectively, despite the decisions of the
editors of those journals that they should be known as StII and IT. Such minor points, however,
in no way detract from the value of this volume, which can be regarded as the final pinnacle upon
the monumental accomplishment which Sir Ralph Turner achieved in the field which he made
so very much his own.
K. R. NORMAN

AGNI: THE VEDIC RITUAL OF THE FIRE ALTAR. Edited by FRITS STAAL. 2 vols. and 2 cassettes of
chants and recitations: pp. xxxviii, 716: pp. xvii, 832. 209 pis., 84 text illustrations, 11 maps, 1
insert. Berkeley, Calif., Asian Humanities Press, 1983, (Distributed in G.B. by Scolar Press,
London.) £200.00.

The 1975 Agnicayana was unquestionably an event of enormous significance in the study of
Vedic ritual and indeed of Indology generally. The record of it in the work under review is on
 REVIEWS OF BOOKS 209

a correspondingly monumental scale, having grown substantially even since it was first announced
for publication in 1979 at a length of about 900 pages (and a tentative price of $50). The disputes
over funding of publication which led to the delay in its appearance, and so in part to the great
increase in price, are briefly mentioned by Staal in the preface to volume I. But the lavish
standards of production of the volumes, printed in large type with wide margins on thick,
hand-made paper and boxed and bound in "Agni brick-colored cloth", have clearly also
contributed to a price which must make libraries as well as individuals think twice about the cost.
Handsome volumes do not necessarily ensure the wide dissemination of their contents.
In the first volume Frits Staal (in collaboration with C. V. Somayajipad and M. Itti Ravi
Nambudiri) provides a suitable general introduction to the ritual and then a full description of
the ceremony itself. In the background material Staal ranges very widely but usefully from man's
first taming of fire through the Indo-European speaking peoples' migrations to recent
Nambudiri tradition, as well as alluding forward to some of the contributions in the second
volume. Staal's abilities uniquely equip him to cover so vast a range of material but also
encourage the zest for controversy that perhaps too readily shows itself. His criticisms of Keith's
translation of the Taittirtya Samhita (pp. 63-4), though largely justified, are forcefully expressed
and his presentation of an alternative view of the Maitrayamya Upanisad (pp. 70-2) consists
largely of an attack on van Buitenen's analysis. The latter is the more regrettable since he
concludes with a reference, as though to an unquestioned authority, to his own Exploring
Mysticism, which has attracted considerable controversy. In his survey of Iranian parallels he
cites zaota thus after two -a stems when zaotar would be clearer (although presumably he does
so to parallel hota, so given, also alongside stem forms for other words) and wrongly gives atur
for atar (pp. 93-4); also, in citing Archimedes as a parallel to one of the mantras (p. 550), he does
so in a regularised Attic rather than Syracusan Doric — if he wishes to cite the original, he
should.
However, in general this introductory part does, as it should, set out the background helpfully.
Nevertheless, it includes occasional new points, such as the suggestion on the basis of details
of the ritual that Prajapati, Visvakarman and Paramestin are indigenous deities (pp. 159-60).
There is even one point where a controversial but nevertheless interesting issue has been skirted
round. Although brief details are given on p. 303 (with some further comments in volume two,
at p. 248 by Kashikar and Parpola and at pp. 464-9 by Staal) of the substitution made when
it was decided not to sacrifice any goats because of public feeling on the matter (and similarly
on p. 395 the substitution for the burial of a live tortoise of a wooden one), there is no real
discussion of the implication of this innovation and little hint at the feelings of the partici-
pants.
The major part of the first volume is then taken up with an extremely full and detailed
description of the actual performance (illustrated with many excellent photographs by Adelaide
deMenil), with most of the mantras given both in the original and in translation. This full
description is supplemented in volume two with regard to various organisational details by
an article on the project by Staal and by a final, fifth part on the filming and tape recording
of the ritual, which resulted in the film Altar of Fire and the two cassette tapes of Vedic chant
(mostly recorded at the ceremony, but some before and some afterwards) which accompany the
two volumes. This documentary record — written, photographic and aural — is exem-
plary.
The second volume mainly consists of a third part containing articles by various scholars and
a fourth part containing translations of relevant texts; these naturally vary in quality, as well as
in the audience aimed at. Romila Thapar's article on the archaeological background soundly
surveys the evidence and usefully notes the aspect of the Aryans as absorbers of other cultures,
while Asko Parpola's look at the pre-Vedic Indian background is more speculative and in some
ways also more stimulating, as is Heesterman's article illustrating his agonistic view of Vedic
ritual from various details of the Agnyadheya. Next come two more theoretical articles, on the
geometry of the rituals by Seidenberg and on ritual structure by Staal. Seidenberg's presents a
curious mix of very general remarks on Vedic literature and ritual (rendered superfluous by Staal's
contributions in the first volume) with very technical discussion of the geometrical theory, while
Staal's develops the understanding of the complex rituals in terms of structural sequences which
he has propounded already in other articles. With these in many ways belong the articles placed
210 REVIEWS OF BOOKS
later by Wayne Howard on aniruktagana and by Staal on Vedic mudras (one of the few serious
misprints occurs in the latter: "unaspirated" for "aspirated" at p. 362, 1.7 ).
The next articles examine aspects of the Agnicayana on a textual basis, from the angle of
performance, or the srauta tradition, especially among the Nambudiris. Yasuke Ikari's article
"Ritual Preparation of the Mahavlra and Ukha Pots" contains some interesting remarks on the
gradual exclusion of the potter from the description and from the ritual itself. K. Bala-
subrahmanya Sastri's on "Agnicayana in the Mimamsa", being heavily Sanskritised in its
original presentation, has been edited by James A. Santucci, who presumably is responsible for
"decertification" for "dehusking" and "option" as a translation of kamyata rather than
"optional nature". The weakest article here is the history of the Nambudiri community by
M. G. S. Narayanan and Kesavan Veluthat. The discrepancy of dating for Veluthat's book in
this and the next article is disturbing where, as throughout this work, reference to secondary
literature is made by author and date only; it also raises the more general questions of the degree
of editorial control exercised and the role of separate bibliographies within a collective work.
Also in this part are placed three comparative articles, on Homa in Java and Bali by C.
Hooykaas, in Tibet by T. Skorupski, and in East Asia by M. Strickmann.
The fourth part of texts and translations contains translations of the relevant passages from
Baudhayana SS by Yasuke Ikari and Harold Arnold (printed with a reproduction on the facing
page of Caland's text from which the critical apparatus in the footnotes has been to my mind
perversely erased), from Kausltaki Brahmana by E. R. Sreekrishna Sharma, and from Jaiminiya
&S with Bhavatrata's commentary by Asko Parpola. Of these the last is probably the most
significant but all are competently done and provide a valuable counterpoint to the description
of the actual performance in the second part (in volume one).
The core of the work clearly does lie in this second part describing the 1975 performance and
everything else must be judged in relation to it. By that standard the fourth part, translating
relevant texts, is well justified, as are many of the articles. It is harder to say whether the work
hangs together as a whole. Its sheer bulk is a factor here but it does also seem that at some points
it simply attempts to range too widely for any single individual's interest or competence.
However, any such reservations must pale into relative insignificance in comparison with the
enormous achievement that this work represents.
J. L. BROCKINGTON

SURABHI: SREEKRISHNA SARMA FELICITATION VOLUME. Edited by the PROF. E. R. SREEKRISHNA

SARMA FELICITATION COMMITTEE, pp. vii, 240; 40, 16 (Sanskrit section). Tirupati, Prof. E. R.
Sreekrishna Sarma Felicitation Committee, 1983.

This volume results from the celebration of Professor Sreekrishna Sarma's 60th birthday and
retirement in January 1982. During his distinguished career Professor Sarma has been mainly
associated with Tirupati but has also worked at Marburg and at Adyar, besides playing a major
role in the 1975 Agnicayana project. It is natural, therefore, that this volume should contain
articles by a wide range of well-wishers who have contributed 21 articles in English and six in
Sanskrit. The volume also contains a brief biography of Professor Sarma and congratulatory
addresses in English and Sanskrit.
Apart from the division into English and Sanskrit sections, the articles are in a purely random
order. However, they fall into three main categories, of Vedic literature, grammar and
philosophy, with a further half dozen on miscellaneous topics. Those on Vedic subjects include
no fewer than three on aspects of the Jamiminlya Brahmana, by Wilhelm Rau, Karl Hoffmann
and H. W. Bodewitz. Frits Staal's treatment of the structure of some of the chants employed in
the Agnicayana amplifies material in the Agni volumes and is best read in conjuction with them,
whereas Wayne Howard's article on the Samaveda arcika recitation of the Namputiris is more
independent. In addition, K. P. Aithal discusses the Ahalayana Sutras and G. V. Devasthali
draws attention to Madhava's interest in metrical issues in his Rgveda commentary, the
Mantrarthanukramanl.
The article by M. D. Balasubrahmanyam on the accentuation of vodhave forms a transition