This is a revised version of a PhD thesis submitted to the University of Würzburg in 2003. Its early publication in a prestigious series suggests that it is a highly regarded piece of academic research. Its main aim is to search for the Ṛgvedic origins of the connotation of the figure of gandharva (Pāli gandhabba) as ‘a being in an intermediate state’ (Zwischezustandswesen) known from the Buddhist context. The expression gandhabba, apart from denoting a category of lower deities often described in the role of celestial musicians, is used in two Pāli discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikāya – MN I, 38; PTS I, s. 265–6 & II. 93; PTS II, s.157) also for a spirit-being whose presence at the time of the union of prospective parents is a condition for the successful conception of an embryo. The implication is that this is an individual in an intermediate state between two ‘incarnations’ or rebirths as a human being driven by his karmic ties from life to life. (I touched upon this topic in an article in this Journal in 1988, No. 1, pp. 73–97. The topic has been thoroughly researched by O. H. de A. Wijesekera and Alex Wayman and also dealt with by Peter Harvey and others).
The author dedicates to the Buddhist connection the short Part I of the book under the title ‘Gandharva and the Intermediate State in Buddhist Sources’ (Gandharva und der >Zwischenzustand< in der buddhistischen Literatur) which she regards as an introduction to her main research endeavour. She starts straightaway with a quotation from the so-called Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bar do'i thos grol – BTG) which instructs the being in the intermediate state how to avoid entry into the womb when witnessing the passionate embrace of a couple or at least to avoid feelings of attraction and aversion. She then surveys briefly earlier interpretations of the MN passages referred to above and points out the dependence of Tibetan texts on Indian works. She finds a direct connection of BTG particularly to Abhidharmakośa. After quoting the MN II. 93 passage and corresponding versions in subsequent Buddhist texts, Milindapañha and Divyāvadāna, the author stresses their fundamentally different nature when compared with the BTG: the former describe simply the process of rebirth while the latter seeks to prevent it. With additional help from Pāli commentaries she then lists four characteristics of the gandhabba: he is (1) passive, (2) under karmic influence, (3) accompanied by specific odour (gandha, probably a popular etymological derivation) and (4) on the way to a new existence. All four characteristics fit also the being in the intermediate state of BTG, including, normally, the fourth one, since liberation from rebirth occurs only in ideal cases.
The bulk of the book is taken by Part II dedicated to the textual analysis of Ṛgvedic hymns and Sāyaṇa's commentary under the subheading ‘Gandharva as a Being in the Intermediary State in the Ṛgveda’ (Gandharva als Zwischezustandswesen im Ṛgveda). Although the author is aware of a certain vagueness in the position and function of gandharva in Vedic hymns, she nevertheless finds in them during her painstaking analysis hints in descriptions of gandharva, for example being ‘noble’, with the BTG; in it the human being in the intermediary state is always addressed as “son of noble family”.
The author points out the complex imagery employed in the Vedas which moves in cosmic dimensions but applies equally to the human level so that macrocosmic processes have their parallel microcosmic meaning in different contexts, e.g. waters, in cosmic context an image for creation, indicate in connection with rain bringing clouds the renewal of life on earth and can stand also for embryonic liquid (Fruchtwasser) which suggests a new individual life.
The Vedic speculations on a cosmic level concerning the origin and nature of the world and mystical insights into human destiny within the Vedas shrouded in archaic symbolical language have been overshadowed by the ritualistic usage of the hymns which has unduly influenced their interpretation. Sāyaṇa's commentary is largely responsible for this and this view of the Vedas still lingers on despite the researches of Jan Gonda and others which show that the adaptation of the hymns for ritual purposes was a secondary development. It is therefore a welcome contribution to the exploration of the deeper meaning of the Vedic texts when a young scholar starts discovering their possible links even to a work as relatively recent as is the BTG. Contrary to the prevailing view in Buddhist circles and among scholars engaged in Buddhological studies there are numerous such links from the Vedas to Buddhist texts even in imagery. To give one small example: the third characteristic of the gandharva as accompanied by specific odour is foreshadowed in RV 10,123, Verse 7 where the gandharva is referred to as wrapped in a sweet smelling veil (vasāno atkaṁ subrahiṁ) which might have given the impetus for the etymological derivation mentioned above. This hymn is most comprehensively discussed by the author and she suggests that her interpretation of it in the form of a backwards projection of the Buddhist concept of gandharva should serve as an encouragement to taking Buddhist tradition into account for the sake of comprehending especially the younger hymns. Ritual apart, she rightly maintains, Buddhism hardly ever invents new images, but perpetuates older conceptions, including the Upaniṣadic ones but bypassing later Hindu tradition, and reinterprets them in its own context.
The author analyses altogether eleven hymns or relevant verses, mostly from the ninth and tenth book, often giving her own translations after quoting earlier ones. Her translation of portions of Sāyaṇa's commentary is a first. Despite Sāyaṇa's ritualistic slant, the author extracts even from him some hints helpful for her purpose. Altogether, as she modestly remarks in the conclusion, her textual analysis provides results which make the Ṛgvedic origins of the later Buddhist development of gandharva into the being in the intermediate state probable – I would say, more than probable.
However, what the author presents is, in fact, not new. In a sweeping way all her findings and more were already dealt with or pointed out in 1945 by O. H. de A. Wijesekera in an article which is listed in her Bibliography. What she provides with respect to her strictly defined theme is, besides some perceptive translations of some portions of the hymns and Sāyaṇa's commentary, detailed textual and comparative analyses and interpretation of the relevant hymns or portions of them.
The pointer from the Vedas to the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the possible link between them across more then three millennia was also briefly dealt with by me in connection with a different theme in my article referred to above.
This book is not one which anyone can read, only a specialist can profit from using it. Neither is it a guide to how one may read the Veda. Rather it shows how one can go about interpreting its message and find the links to subsequent living religious traditions.
