American Academy of Religion

Purana Perennis: Reciprocity and Transformation in Hindu and Jaina Texts by Wendy
Doniger
Review by: Guy L. Beck
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 64, No. 4, Thematic Issue on "Religion
and American Popular Culture" (Winter, 1996), pp. 866-867
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1465627 .
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866 Journalof the AmericanAcademyof Religion

schemes of the ancient ritualists,their almost manic desire to find a place for
everything in the cosmos. Furthermore,without letting the Brahminsoff the
hook, he might have felt freerto considerthe ramificationsof such classificatory
zeal for the subsequentdevelopmentof SouthAsianthoughtand culture.Perhaps
if ClassifyingtheUniversehad remainedmorea handbookthan a diatribe,it might
have at leastgiven the impressiontherewas something"leftto do."
BrianA. Hatcher
IllinoisWesleyanUniversity

Purana Perennis: Reciprocityand Transformationin Hindu and Jaina Texts.

Edited by Wendy Doniger. State University of New York Press, 1993. 331
pages. N.P

The textual and culturalintersectionswithin Hinduism, and between Hin-

duism andJainism,receivea freshexaminationin this attractivelydesigned vol-
ume containingnine essaysby eminent scholarsin the fields of both Hindu and
Jainastudies. As indicatedin the subtitle, the emphasisis on reciprocaltransfor-
mationwithin the Hindu andJainatextualand culturalmilieu. The editor of the
volume, Wendy Doniger,providessupportiveguidance in the Introduction(xi)
by stating, "thiswhole book is about reciprocaltransformations,the two-way
stretch ... with constant cyberneticfeedbackbetween pan-Indian culture and
localized culture, ratherthan subordinationof one to the other."This approach
is consistent with her previous work on the Puranasand displays a remarkable
achievement in bringing together this group of essays. The format consists of
three Parts,the firstof which follows a straighthistoricalfocus with the last two
unveiling more clearlythe kind of "boomerang" effectof reciprocation.
Leading off PartI, "From Vedaand Epic to Purana and Upapurana,"LaurieL.
Patton discusses the transitional-and indeed problematic-nature of the
Brhaddevata, a text with both Vedic and Puranicfeatures,in her "TheTranspar-
ent Text:PuranicTrendsin the Brhaddevata." This is followedby two provocative
essays by Wendy Doniger. The first, which leaps ahead in time at least 1000
yearsto two of the laterPuranas,raisesmythologicaland etymologicalquestions
regardingthe role of the parrotas a Puranicnarratorin "Echoesof the Mahab-
harata:Why Is a Parrotthe Narratorof the BhagavataPuranaand the Devibha-
gavata Purana?"In the second, "TheScrapbookof Undeserved Salvation:The
KedaraKhandaof the SkandaPurana,"she uses the theme of the ratherflexible
and ill-defined qualityof the SkandaPuranato expand on the notion of the folk
(and thus oral)basis for the Puranasin general.
PartII, "FromSouth to North and BackAgain,"containsfour essaysnot only
tracingthe geographicalmigrationof Puranicideas from North India to South
India and back again, but also among specific vernaculartraditions.Velcheru
NarayanaRao discusses several important issues related to the Puraniccanon
and oralityin his essay,"Puranaas BrahminicIdeology."The late A.K. Ramanu-
jan has disclosed severaldifferencesbetween folk and classicalmythologicalnar-
rativesin his revealingdiscussion of a Kannadafolk Purana,MaleyaMadesvara,
 BookReviews 867

including the creationmyth, in "OnFolk Mythologiesand Folk Puranas."David

Shulman'sessay,"Remakinga Purana:The Rescueof Gajendrain Potana'sTelugu
Mahabhagavatamu," describes the specific reciprocitiesinvolved between the
Sanskritand Teluguversions of the Gajendraepisode taken fromthe Bhagavata-
Purana.And FriedhelmHardy's,"Informationand Transformation: TwoFacesof
the Puranas,"deals with methodologicalproblemsin assessing the transforma-
tions of meaningin the ongoing historicalprocess.He effectivelypresentsexam-
ples fromseveralfolk traditionsas well as fromJainaand Buddhistliterature.
PartIII, "FromHindu to Jainaand BackAgain,"includes two essays reveal-
ing the reciprocitybetween Jaina and Hindu Puranictraditions.John E. Cort
provides a useful survey of the Puranictraditionin Jainism in "AnOverviewof
the JainaPuranas."This is followed by the distinguishedJainascholar Padma-
nabh S. Jaini, who focuses on severalspecific issues of reciprocityin his "Jaina
Puranas:A PuranicCounterTradition."
As indicatedby the editor in the Introduction,the overalldesign of the book
attemptsto weave togetherotherwisedistinctareasof the Indiansubcontinent-
North, South, high, low, old, new, Sanskritic,vernacular,classical, folk, Vedic,
post-Vedic,Hindu,Jaina-into a demonstrationof the open-ended, intertextual
quality of the Puraniccorpus, taking into account the various oral and written
traditions of the so-called Maha-Puranasand Upa-Puranas.A major point of
emphasis among the contributorsis the frequentinterfacebetween written and
oral, classicaland folk, exposing the fluidic tendencies of what may previously
have appeared as rigidly embedded cultural phenomena. Most of the essays
fit this paradigmand display a good command of the sources. Yet, although
there are at least eighteen Puranasfrom the classical tradition,and many more
minor Puranas,the Bhagavata-Purana receivesthe most attentionto the obvious
neglect of the others. And, while the intention may have been to target the
general-interestreader of Indian traditions ("Inthe hope of making the book
accessibleto a non-specialist audience, I have tried to de-Sanskritizeit as faras
possible,"Introduction,xi), some of the essays (admittedlyCort,but also Patton
and Shulman)are slightly more formaland occasionallyexpose the unprepared
reader to discussions of scholarly literatureand demonstrationsof Sanskritic
legerdemain.In the chapter-by-chapterbibliography(295-315), the entries for
chapters4-6 are missing.
This book is recommendedfor inclusion in collections of librariesseeking
completeness in the area of South Asian studies and will be rewardingfor stu-
dents interestedin the broadspectrumof cross-culturaltextualproduction.

Guy L. Beck
LouisianaStateUniversity

Womenunder the Bb Tree.By Tessa Bartholomeusz. New York: Cambridge

University Press, 1994. 284 pages. N.P
WomenundertheBbTreetells the fascinatingstoryof how modern SriLankan
women have adopted various strategies (from the nineteenth century to the