THE book, small in size but rich in contents, which is herewith placed before the public, has been written by a prisoner of war during his captivity at Ahmednagar, though some of the materials on which it is based had, fortunately, been collected by him before the War broke out. Only the Samhita MSS, of the Adyar Library, namely those of nos. 8, 70 and 195 of the synopsis on pp. 6 fil, which were acquired recently, have remained entirely unknown to Dr. Schrader.
The burden of seeing the work through the press has fallen on the undersigned who, though having done all in his power to acquit himself honourably of his task, is fully aware of its difficulties and of the inadequacy of his knowledge of Sanskrit to cope with those with complete success. It was impossible under such circumstances to produce an absolutely faultless work; still, a glance at the list of Additions and Corrections will show that the purely typographical errors found by the Author in the printed sheets are of a trifling nature. Two omissions in the MS., however, have caused a few words of importance to fall out which must be restored at once. These omissions are given in the Errata for p. 16, 1. 12 from bottom, p. 32 1. 6 from bottom, and p. 42 1, 10. The reader should also correct immediately the erratum for p. 24
The Author has undoubtedly doubled the value of his monograph, by adding to it copious indexes and a detailed synopsis of the contents. Together they render the whole of the subject-matter of the book in all its categories instantaneously available for reference. Thus the work may preliminarily serve as a concise but encyclopedic reference book on the Pancharatra, until it shall be superseded by subsequent more exhaustive publications. The Numeral Index contains some items not found elsewhere in the book.
A personal word in conclusion. The publication of this little work coincides with the severance of the connection with the Adyar Library, though for wholly different reasons, of both Dr. Schracler and myself, I may be permitted to express here my great satisfaction at having had the privilege of watching over the booklet on its way through the press, a last service rendered to the Adyar Library in close and pleasant co-operation with Dr. Schrader, which puts a term to a period of over seven years' daily collaboration with the same aims, in the same spirit and in complete harmony, for the same object.
May Dr. Schrader's last official work performed for the Library enhance the renown of that Institution, and may it be judged to constitute a fit conclusion to his eleven years' tenure of office as Director of the Adyar Library.
The publication of this book also, as that of the two volumes of the text edition of Ahirbudhnya Samhita, has been greatly facilitated by the courtesy of the military censors at Ahmednagar, to whom our sincere thanks are due.
ADYAB, JOHAN VAN MANEN,
August 1916. Assistant Librarian, Adyar Library.
Introduction to Paancharatra by F. OTTO SCHRADER, PH.D, DIRECTOR, ADYAR LIBRARY (1916)
It may be supposed that the name Paancharatra 1 points to five principal subjects treated in that system. So it is, indeed, understood in the apocryphal Naaradiya, which says that the five kinds of ratra= "knowledge " are: tattva, mukti-prada, bhakti-prada, yaugika, and vaiseshika that is to say that they are concerned respectively with (1) ontology (cosmology), (2) liberation, (3) devotion, (4) Yog a3 an d (5) the objects of sense. Though the five books of the said Samhita accord, but very imperfectly with this division, and the five Ratras of Mahasanatkumara Samhita still less, and though the Naaradiya as a whole can certainly not be used as a Paancharatra authority, the above statement may none the less rest on good tradition. In this case ratra, originally "night ", would have come to mean -- how we do not know -- both a cardinal doctrine of a system as well as the chapter or work dealing with that doctrine, that is: it became synonymous with tantra and samhita, so that Paancharatra would be a designation of the ancient Vaisnavite system in exactly the same manner as, according to the twelfth chapter of Ahirbudhnya Samhita, Shashti Tantra was one of the Samkhya Yoga. This explanation, though perhaps at variance with the chapter just mentioned stating (in sl. 45-18) that the Paancharatra consists of ten cardinal teachings (samhitas) , is at least not so fanciful as " the night=obscuration, of the five other systems ", or " the system, cooking=destroying the night=ignorance ", or the attempts to connect that name with the five sacraments (branding, etc.) or the five daily observances (abhigamana, etc.) of the Paancharatras. However, it seems to us that the original use of the name is only connected with the first of the ten topics referred to (Bhagavat), namely the peculiar God-conception of the Paancharatras, and that it can be discovered in the Panchatra Sattra spoken of in S'atapatha Brahmana XIII 6. 1, which is, moreover, the earliest passage in which the word Paancharatra occurs. In that passage " Purusa Narayana is mentioned as having conceived the idea of a Paficaratra Sattra (continued sacrifice for five days) as a means of obtaining superiority over all beings and becoming all beings and the preceding chapter (XII 3. 4) narrates in detail how He, by sacrificing Himself, actually became the whole world. Narayana is thus connected with, and even made the author of, the Purusa Sukta which, together with the Sahasrasirsa section of Mahanarayana Upanishad, plays such a prominent part in the cosmolog ical accounts and Mantra exegesis of the Pancaratrins. It appears, then, that the sect took its name from its central dogma which was the Paancharatra Sattra of Narayana interpreted philosophically as the fivefold self -manifestation of God by means of His Para, Vyuha, Vibhava, Antaryamin, and Archa forms. This would well agree with the statement of Ahirb. Samh., at the end of the eleventh adhyaya, that the Lord Himself framed out of the original S'astra " the system (tantra) called Paancharatra describing His [fivefold] nature [known] as Para, Vyuha, Vibhava, etc.", and "that highest "Will of Vishnu called Sudars'ana through which He split into five, appearing five-mouthed."
[...................]
The principal subjects treated in the Paancharatra:
1 For the transition, the meaning of "Thousand and one lights =as many stories", may perhaps be compared.
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