Theosophical
Glossary (1)
[Reviewed by H.S. Olcott]
[Reprinted from The Theosophist (Adyar, Madras, India), April
1892, pp. 444-45.]
The London Head-quarters Staff have given still another proof of their amazing industry
by bringing out H.P.B.s posthumous and most useful Theosophical
Glossary. It is a 4to. volume of 389 pp., printed in superb type, on the best
of paper, and bound to match the Secret Doctrine. Nothing could have
been more timely for, with the expansion of our literature, fresh Oriental terms are being
introduced which, without interpretation, are meaningless to the Western reader. The
present work supplies a crying want, therefore, and will add enormously to H.P.B.s
literary reputation while, at the same time, going to show her extraordinary clairvoyant
intuition. Needless to say, she never made the least pretence to what is called
scholarship, i.e., acquiring her knowledge in the usual way by book-study: it came
to her mainly while in the act of writing. In a letter to her sister, quoted by Mr.
Sinnett in his biography of her, she very clearly describes this mental process. But
when it came to quoting or translating from current literature, her habit was to ask the
help of those who were learned in the specialities she might be discussing. When she
first undertook the Secret Doctrine there was an agreement between her and the
late erudite Mr. T. Subba Row, that he should edit the portions relating to Indian
Philosophy, verify her transliterations and correct her interpretations of Sanskrit
words. If she had lived to bring out the Glossary, this would undoubtedly have been
her course, and the work would have been free from the large number of errors which now
characterize it, and which are more than likely to be pointed out by unfriendly
Orientalist critics. Deserving of all praise, as Mr. Meads industry and skill
in editing this MSS. are he would have done better service to H.P.B. by calling upon some
one or more of our most competent Indian colleagues to have verified the renderings of the
Sanskrit words and phrases; the more so as they would doubtless have considered it a labor
of love. Accuracy would not then have been sacrificed to speed. As it stands,
the Glossary must be taken as giving the meanings which H.P.B. supposed the words to
have, and which interpret the ideas she put into English words while writing. In
this respect it is invaluable to theosophical students. But from the point of
Sanskrit scholarship it appears full of blunders. In imitation of H.P.B.s own
example, I have asked an English-knowing Sanskrit pandit to report upon the Sanskrit words
under the initial A. He says: ---
The transliterations of the Sanskrit words is sometimes so bad that readers may
often confound them for others which have a different meaning. With this general
remark, I may say that out of 154 words beginning with A, put down as Sanskrit, 28 words
are so transliterated that some of them would not, in their new garb, be taken to be
Sanskrit. Eighteen of the words are very badly explained, as, for instance, Adhyatma
vidya, which literally means the Science of Atma, and not the
esoteric luminary. (This mistake is copied from Dr. Eitel.) Amitabha
is a Sanskrit expression, meaning boundless splendor; not a Chinese
corruption of the Sanskrit Amrita Buddha, as explained. The Amitabhas are
certain Devas who are said, in the Vishnu Purana, to rule the sky in Raivata and Savarni
Manvantaras. Aindriya means literally pertaining to the senses,
not Indrani, the wife of Indra. Apana is wrongly explained as
inspirational breath, and is not a practice in Yoga. It
means the wind or vayu which is said to be in the lower portion of
the body. Prana, again, is not expirational breath. Arasamaram
is not Sanskrit but pure Tamil, and means simply the Pipal tree, literally, the king
of trees. Two of the erroneous renderings of Sanskrit under the letter A have
been taken over from Dowsons Classical Dictionary of India, and five
from Dr. Eitels Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary. Under the letter B
there are seven mis-translations; under C one; and under D fourteen. Thus,
overlooking minor ones, in the first four letters of the alphabet, out of 303 words, there
are no less than 40 glaring mis-translations. I have examined no farther.
Among the many proofs of the incompleteness of the MS. must be mentioned these:
Sankara, Founder of the Adwaita school, is mentioned, but not Ramanuja and Madhava, the
equally well known Founders of the other two great schools, the Dwaita and
Vishisthadvaita; Rammohun Roy is spoke of, but not VALMIKI , author
of the Ramayana, nor even Swami Dayananda Saraswati, our contemporary. Bhagavatam
is described as a Tamil scripture on Astronomy and other things, whereas it is
one of the (Sanskrit) Mahapuranas and treats on Vedantic Philosophy, the Creation,
histories of sovereigns, etc. All these would have been rectified if H.P.B. had
lived.
In his modest Preface to the Glossary, Mr. Mead disclaims all pretension to the
elaborate and extraordinary scholarship requisite for the editing of the work, and
candidly admits the likelihood of there being mistakes in transliteration: he tells
us also that, for the interpretation of facts relating to the Kabalah, to Rosicrucian and
Hermetic doctrines, H.P.B. availed of the help of our erudite brother W. Wynn
Westcott. It is a thousand pities that the Sanskrit portions were not sent here for
verification by Mr. Gopalacharlu, Prof. Manilal, Mr. Govinda Dasa, of Benares, or R.
Sundara Sastri, of Kumbakonam --- all F. T. S.s and staunch friends of H.P.B.
Permitting the work to be hurried out with so many errors of omission and commission in
its Sanskrit department, are we not playing into the hands of Prof. Muller and other
Sanskritists who concur with him in calling us a lot of pseudo-scholars?
As for the explanations of terms pertaining to occultism and the Secret Doctrine in
particular, words of praise are superfluous, for H.P.B. wrote upon those themes with
perfect knowledge of her subject and with unequalled force and brilliancy. For this
reason, I repeat, the work should be in every Theosophists library.
H.S.O.
Note
(1) "The Theosophical Glossary,"
by H.P. Blavatsky, London, 1892; The Theosophical Publishing Society.
|