Yoga and Yantra: Their Interrelation and Their Significance for Indian Archaeology by P. H.

Pott; Rodney Needham

Review by: J. Ensink
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, Vol. 30, No. 3,
Fiftieth Anniversary Volume (1967), pp. 708-709
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of School of Oriental and African Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/612418 .
Accessed: 22/10/2013 19:03

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Cambridge University Press and School of Oriental and African Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to
digitize, preserve and extend access to Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 141.164.32.111 on Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:03:27 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
708
this subject, we have to accept that in these
matters the theories were not based on
experimentation, and they therefore belong
to the realm of speculation, not science. In
these circumstances all similarities or differ-
ences are purely coincidental. While in the
knowledge of logic, for instance, branches of
Indian systems, including the Jaina, have
produced concepts equal or superior to Western
concepts and provide suitable opportunities
for tracing similarities and contrasts, com-
parisons in the field of biology and biophysics
do not seem fruitful or instructive.
Despite its flaws, Reals in the Jaina meta-
physics is a useful book for students who want
to find a quick reference to single concepts
and theories current in Jaina philosophy and
religion and to their Indian counterparts.
It is a pity that, in addition to a host of errors
in Sanskrit terms, the book is full of misprints
and mistakes in the spelling of words, names,
and titles to the point of distracting the
reader's attention. The errata slip is of little
help and has misprints of its own.
ARNOL'D KUNST
P. H. POTT: Yoga and yantra : their
interrelation and their significance for
Indian archaeology. Translatedfrom the
Dutch by Rodney Needham. (Konink-
lijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en
Volkenkunde. Translation Series, 8.)
xv, 167 pp., 15 plates. The Hague:
Martinus Nijhoff, 1966. Guilders 25.
Dr. Pott's thesis (Leiden, 1946), which,
without material changes, is now published in
an English translation, is still a very useful
introduction to the category of those works of
art which serve the yogin as aids to his medita-
tion and are to him, for the duration of his
spiritual exercises, actually abodes of divine
powers. To all these objects, whether they are
diagrams, three-dimensional symbols, or idols,
and whether they are thought to embody one
or more gods, the author applies the name of
' yantra'. This is a term used in the Hindu
Tantras to denote a diagram meant to be the
seat of one specific deity and to be meditated
upon. But, as other objects in Buddhist as well
as Hindu Tantric religion have the same func-
tion, Dr. Pott's generalizing use of the term
seems justified.
Avalon has shown the essential meaning of
the yantra and Zimmer has devoted a mono-
graph to it. In dealing with this subject-
matter Dr. Pott's object is ' to find out to what
extent a knowledge of the concepts of yoga
may prepare the way to a better understanding
of Indian archaeology' (p. xiii). The study of
This content downloaded from 141.164.32.111 on Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:03:27 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
REVIEWS
the connexion between yoga and art proves
very fruitful indeed : on the one hand it is only
in this way that one can hope to arrive at an
adequate explanation of the art emanating
from Tantric religion; on the other hand, as
this art symbolizes religious concepts, it may
contribute to an understanding of them. Many
yantras (in the wider sense Dr. Pott gives to
the term) are complex in that they are con-
sidered to provide a seat for more than one
divine power. Several are even meant as
replicas of the cosmos-macrocosm and micro-
cosm, according to a widespread Indian
notion, corresponding closely in every detail.
In their configuration such yantras express the
relation between the different powers and the
study of them may convey the principles under-
lying the system of the pantheon they refer to.
Dr. Pott stresses the use of research of this kind
for iconography.
As it is especially Tantric yoga by which the
artists have been guided, the author in his first
chapter gives a survey of the essential features
of that form of yoga, taking his material
mainly from the texts published by Avalon.
He discusses the microcosmic system of the six
centres (safcakra), through which, in the
course of yoga, Devi Kundalini makes her way
upwards, until in the' thousand-petalled lotus'
(sahasrdrapadma) she is united with Siva.
Complementary to this course of yoga (' the
breaking through the six centres ', satcakra-
bheda) is a second course called anuttarayoga.
Here the 'lotus of the heart' (hrdaydmbuja)
or the ' lotus that is the root of bliss ' (dnanda-
kandapadma)is an important centre ; it is the
seat of the iqtadevati, with whom the jivitman
is one. Anuttarayoga includes the act of
przaapratisthd, i.e. the ' infusing of vital airs '
(viz. istadevatii-jivitman) into the yantra for
the sake of worship of and meditation upon the
deity.
In the second chapter the different forms a
yantra may have are passed in review. In the
yantra mystic syllables (bija) may be intro-
duced, which shows the parallelism between
the yantra and that other important element
in Tantric yoga, the formula (mantra). For
different stages in the yogin's spiritual develop-
ment either different yantras are required, or
special elements in a complex yantra should
correspond to each stage.
To exemplify the various sorts of yantra the
author discusses a great number of cult objects
and monuments chiefly from India (ch. ii),
Tibet (iii), Nepal (iv), Java and Bali (v) and
shows how they express relations between
deities and groups of deities in the Tantric
(Buddhist or 8aivite) pantheons. To the know-
ledge of these systems-especially of the
principles on which they are based as well as
certain general tendencies in their historical
 REVIEWS
development-the book is an important con-
tribution.
Even to list the many yantras dealt with in
this way would exceed the scope of this
review. The reviewer limits himself to calling
attention to a complex of symbols which, at
the time the book was written, was not yet
well known, but which may throw light on
some of the subjects discussed. In the 8aiva
Agamas (a category of texts prior to the
Tantras, in terms of development) and in the
ritual of the Balinese padanda 8iva we find a
concept of the microcosm which has some
similarity with the satcakra-system (the
centres indeed are sometimes visualized as
lotus-flowers), but instead of Devi Kundalini,
residing in the m7ilddhdracentre, it has at its
base (SdhMra)the snake Ananta, which holds
a tortoise in its coils. The whole symbolism
obviously refers to the myth of the Churning
of the Ocean (amrta-manthana)and the human
person is put on a par with the cosmic moun-
tain. To the reviewer's mind this concept is
plastically represented in the yantra shown in
Moor's album, pl. 102 (Pott, p. 45) and the
monuments of Trawas and Petuligriyana
(p. 35). From the Balinese ritual (Sfirya-
sevana, ed. Hooykaas, Amsterdam, 1966) it
appears that the ceremony called Aiili
' conducting the soul upwards' (Pott, 132 5tmin
f.)
is thought to take place in the same system.
Dr. Pott (113 ff.) has shown how in a certain
group a masculine deity has been replaced by
a feminine and how in general in both the
Saiva and the Buddhist pantheon the feminine
principle has become gradually more impor-
tant. Has thus the masculine Ananta ceded
his place to the feminine Devi Kundalini ?
The Dutch original of this book is difficult in
every respect and Dr. Needham's task in trans-
lating it was no light one. Unhappily difficul-
ties of Dutch semantics have occasionally led
him astray. Some slips may be corrected from
the context. Sometimes a puzzling translation
will warn the reader that something has gone
wrong, as on p. 107, where the author meant to
say that in the Mahayana the terms mahaydna
and hinaydna were coined (on this point, see,
however, E. J. Thomas in JCBRAS, NS, I,
1950, 35). Rare, but particularly misleading,
are the cases where the translation conveys a
meaning that in itself might be quite accept-
able, but is not what the author wanted to say ;
as on p. 84, n. 30, ' To perform this ceremony
backwards as black magic is thought to be
extremely powerful'. Black magic consisting
in the performance of a ritual in reversed order
does occur, but Dr. Pott meant that a wrong
use of the ceremony he referred to was severely
condemned. It is only fair to say that in a few
cases the author, or his source, is to blame for
a mistaken rendering of an original text. For
This content downloaded from 141.164.32.111 on Tue, 22 Oct 2013 19:03:27 PM
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
709
the history of Mahdrija Rdma Krsna, related
by Dr. Pott on p. 80 following Zimmer, 1926,
35, one should turn up Zimmer's source-
Avalon, 1916, II, 291 f. (Avalon's source not
being accessible). On p. 13, Dr. Pott would
have done better not to follow Avalon in his
rendering of KathUp. 2.6.11d: 'Yoga is a
going up and down'. yogo hi prabhavpyayau
is a controversial phrase, but certainly does
not refer to ' going up and down ' as in Tantric
mahiyoga. The reviewer all the more regrets
having to point out such blemishes, as they do
impair to some extent what is on the whole an
elegant and faithful rendering of an important
book on a fascinating subject.
J. ENSINK
YAMUNA KACHRU: An introduction to
Hindi syntax. xii, 230 pp. Urbana,
Ill. : Dept. of Linguistics, Univer-
sity of Illinois, 1966.
In writing this book, Mrs. Kachru states that
she has two aims: (1) 'to exploit the insights
into Hindi grammar that have been gained
by the application of the transformational-
generative model of grammars to the study of
Hindi', (2) 'to use such. insights in relating
language pedagogy to linguistic theory '. In
the preface it is also stated that the book may
be used for teaching the sentence structure of
Hindi to a non-Hindi speaker. At the same
time it may serve as a reference guide to the
advanced student.
It is clear from the introduction that great
emphasis is laid upon the application of the
transformational method to pedagogy. From
this point of view, however, the work leaves
much to be desired. The transformational
method does, as Mrs. Kachru claims, throw
new light upon the way language works and
obviously must have something to offer the
student of the language, but she is unfortu-
nately far from explicit about how it could be
applied to pedagogy.
Generative grammar, dealing with language
in terms of deep and surface structure, seems
to complicate grammatical issues for the
learner whose primary concern is with surface
problems. In order to understand the surface
features, one must, in terms of transforma-
tional grammar, know the deep features,
with which the lay learner cannot be expected
to be concerned. For example, the differences,
manifested in the deep structures of the two
sentences (p. 27) :
dhai bacce ko diidh pilane ke liye hec
botal bacceko difdh pilane ke liye he,
would seem irrelevant from the point of view
of the learner. Statements like, 'sentences