Dharma Patanjala - A Saiva Scripture from Ancient Java (Studied in the Light of Related Old Javanese and Sanskrit Texts)

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The book presents a thoroughly revised edition, English translation, and study of the Dharma Patanjala, an Old Javanese-Sanskrit Saiva scripture transmitted through a single palm-leaf codex of West Javanese origin dating back to the 15th century AD.

The cultural and doctrinal background of the text, as well as its codicological and philological aspects, are introduced in Part I. Part II presents an annotated diplomatic edition of the text with facsimile reproductions of the codex on facing pages, followed by a critical edition with English annotated translation. Part III is a systematic study focusing on the interpretation of the doctrines taught in the Dharma Patanjala in comparison with related Sanskrit texts from the Indian Sub- continent and Old Javanese scriptures from the Indonesian Archipelago.

The author of the Dharma Patanjala adopted a variety of Patanjala astangayoga instead of the Saiva sadangayoga that is common in other Old Javanese texts, and attuned it to a Saiva doctrinal framework. When elaborating his hybrid system, the author followed a commentarial tradition to the Sanskrit Yogasutras that is closely related, yet not identical, to that of the Yogasutrabhasya. The Dharma Patanjala also documents an early tradition of speculative texts (Tattva), which was previously known to us only through two Old Javanese scriptures, namely the Vrhaspatitattva and the Tattvajnana. This important text thus fills a gap in our knowledge of Saiva theology and philosophy in pre-Islamic Indonesia, and also casts light on the origin and development of Saivism in the Indian Subcontinent.

ADREA ACRI was trained at Leiden University (PhD 2011, MA 2006) and at the University of Rome 'la Sapienza' (laurea degree, 2005). He is Maitre de Conferences in Tantric Studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris, France. Prior to joining EPHE he has been Visiting Assistant/Associate Professor at Nalanda University (India) in 2016 and, since 2013, Visiting Fellow at the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute (Singapore). He has spent several years in Indonesia, and held postdoctoral research fellowships in the etherlands, Australia, the UK, and Singapore. He has received competitive grants and awards by the Arcadia Foundation/British library, the Australian Government/Research Council, and the American Academy of Religion. His main research and teaching interests are Saiva and Buddhist Tantric traditions, Hinduism and Indian Philosophy, Yoga traditions; Sanskrit and Old Javanese philology, and the comparative religious and intellectual history of South and Southeast Asia from the premodern to the contemporary period. Besides the Dharma patanjala, his publications include the edited volumes Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia (2016, ISEAS Publishing), From Lanka Eastwards (2011, KITLV Press, co-edited with Helen Creese and Arlo Griftiths), special issues of the International Journal of Hindu Studies (2013, Springer) and the Journal of Hindu Studies {2014, Oxford University Press}, and several articles in peer-reviewed scholarly journals.

I BECAME AWARE of the existence of the Dharma Patanjala when, as a beginning graduate student of Saivism with an interest in its Javano- Balinese developments, I read Ensink’s article 'Sutasoma's Teachings to Gajavaktra, the Snake and the Tigress' (1974). In presenting the Saiva Sadangayoga found in Old Javanese sources, the author makes the following remark (p. 198):

We may note, as Mrs. Soebadio (1971:30) has done, that the yoga course of eight stages (astanga-yoga) as taught in Patanjali's Yogasutra's (YS 2.29-3.5) is hardly known in Javano- Balinese literature. So far only one text discussing it is known. This is the Dharma Patanjala (Dh.Pat. 68r-76v, where the order of pranayama and pratyahara has been inverted). It has been handed down only in Java.

This short remark by Ensink aroused my interest in the text; however, given the Dutch scholar's silence as to the details and whereabouts of his source, I had to wait some time before I could satisfy my curiosity. That time arrived when, going through Cosmogony and Creation in Balinese Tradition by Hooykaas (1974), I came across the two folios of the Dharma Patanjala edited and translated by the author, who included them in his book on account of their interesting account of the incarnation of the Lord as Patanjala, the eldest among the five Kusika-siblings. The section was introduced and concluded by the following considerations (pp. 166 and 170):

Though I do not as a rule believe in work with a single MS because of the possibility of errors, when one particular single MS promises to be the plum in the pudding of one's book, one may be excused for causing one's readers the inconvenience of having to put up with the imperfections of such a MS. [p. 170:] As is so often the case when one has only a single MS at one's disposal, some words and sentences remain obscure. However, as far as I know there is no other source available from which we can draw any more definite conclusions, on the basis of more direct evidence, as to the existence of the terrifying ash-smearing Pasupatas in Java. Again as fas as I remember there is no other Javanese source available, moreover, that informs us so directly about the existence of old of different methods of care for the dead in that island; I would once more like to urge my friend and younger colleague Ensink, who generously placed his transliteration at my disposal, to try and complete his work on the Dharma Patanjala; my comments are meant to act only as an appetiser. In conclusion I might direct the attention of those who are in search of a suitable subject for a Ph.D. thesis to the possibilities offered by an investigation of the other 399 volumes entrusted to the care of Dr. R. Friederich and his successors by an inspection of the wealth of MSS present in the Musium & Perpustakaan Pusat, Jakarta.

Tantalized by the contents of the two folios and by these remarks, I made further investigations about the manuscript of the text and its whereabouts. I soon found out that the codex, formerly belonging to the Schoemann collection, was now to be found in the Orientabteilung of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek, and also realized that Ensink's work had never been committed to the print, while none seemed to have worked on the text after him. This was sufficient reason to take up Hooykaas' challenge to undertake serious philological work on the text, however corrupt it might be, in the form of a PhD dissertation. With the crucial intermediation of Ensink's former pupil and successor in Groningen, Prof. Hans Bakker, I was most kindly entrusted by the widow of the late scholar-whom I never had the pleasure to meet as he had just died a few months before-with his hand-written annotated transliteration of the codex. 1 These materials constituted for me an invaluable guide to the text in the early stages of my research. As I proceeded with the study of its contents, my initial impressions about the importance of the Dharma Patanjala were confirmed beyond my expectations. It became clear to me that the text documented an hitherto unknown commentarial tradition to the Sanskrit Yogasutra that is closely related, albeit not identical, to that of the Bhasya; and that it yielded precious data that not only filled a gap in our knowledge of Saiva theology and philosophy in pre- Islamic Indonesia, but also cast light on the origin and development of Saivism in the Indian Subcontinent.

This work is a slightly revised version of my PhD dissertation, written during the four years of appointment as Junior Researcher at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies (LIAS, formerly CNWS) of Leiden University, and defended there on February the 3rd, 2011. During these tremendously educative years spent between the Netherlands, Indonesia, India and Australia, I have had the opportunity to learn at the feet of many remarkable gurus of different backgrounds) whose teachings have constituted a constant example to be striven after. I wish to thank them here.

First and foremost, I would like to thank Prof. Arlo Griffiths (EFEO) Jakarta; formerly Leiden University) who has been a wonderful Promotor and academic supervisor. His continuous moral support) scholarly rigour and intellectual stimulus) not to speak about his contagious enthusiasm) have positively influenced anything good that may be found in this book.

I thank Dr. Willem van der Molen, my former teacher of Old Javanese as well as Co-Promotor and supervisor during the two years prior to his departure from Leiden University following a re-organization with whom I went through the first draft of my edition and translation of the Dharma Patanjala. Other scholars who were involved) to varying degrees) in the preparation and revision of the same part of my dissertation are the Balinese man of letters Ida Dewa Gede Catra, Dr. I. Kuntara Wiryamartana (Universities Indonesia) Dr. Suryo Supomo (Australian National University). I am deeply grateful to them all for their valuable help as well as for the wonderful time they have allowed me to enjoy while in their company.

I express my gratitude to Prof. Alexis Sanderson (All Souls College) Ox- ford) and Dr. Dominic Goodall (EFEO, Pondicherry) with whom I greatly enjoyed reading Saiva scriptures during international workshops on early Tantric texts that were held in Pondicherry, Kathmandu and Hamburg. With- out their masterful works on Saivism this book could never have been written in the first place. Prof. Sanderson was kind enough to travel to Leiden in his capacity as a member of my doctoral committee) and to make illuminating observations on certain aspects of my work. Dr. Goodall is further to be credited for having shared with me his unpublished editions in progress of (parts of) the Nisvasatattvasamhita and Sarvajnanottara (with Aghorasivas commentary) sections of which we read during my stay of five months in Pondicherry.

I am indebted to Prof. Hans Bakker (University of Groningen) who retrieved the transliteration of the Dharma Patanjala made by Prof. Ensink; and to Prof. Peter Bisschop (Leiden University) who was never short of useful suggestions to improve my writings, which have found in him a most diligent and attentive reader. Many parts of this book have greatly benefited from his constructive criticism.