Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture (review)

Topical Book Reviews , 1 v: .• '., 109 issues confronting a select band of American New Age Jewish seekers and does not pretend to examine others who crisscross the Jewish Asi~n landscape. Therefore, we cannot, as I would have hoped, generally extend the study's conclusions beyond the small group of individuals interviewed. All this being said, what I still like best about this book is that it identifies the spiritual vehicles this particular set of seekers used to traverse the East-West landscape. Hananya Goodman Editor ofBetween Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism Veda and Torah: Transcending the Textuality of Scripture, by Barbara Holdrege. Albany: State University ofNew York Press, 1996. 765 pp. $59.50 (c); $19.95 (p). The study of written documents has been a cornerstone of religious studies from the very beginnings of the discipline in the nineteenth century. Based on the implicit model of the Protestant Christian understanding of the role of scripture in religious life, scholarship long assumed a similar 'status for the written word in other religious traditions around the globe. The extent to which the study of primary texts remains the dominant activity in the classroom, and in scholarship, indicates the hold that this methodological assumption has had over religious studies for over a century. For roughly the past twenty years, however, a more critically self-conscious sensibility has been abroad. Fueled by developments in disciplines ranging from anthropology to literary studies, a new restiveness at glib comparativism has emerged, and a provocative series of new questions has been asked of the literary deposits found so broadly in religious life. They focus not so much on the content and credal value of writTen documents, or on their origins and text history. Rather, they are functional questions, and they inquire into what kind ofrole documents play in the lives of particular communities, how such roles have changed over time, and how they might responsibly be compared cross-culturally. "What sort of category is 'scripture'?" is turning out to be an enormously provocative question, one that illuminates not just the fact of written documents, but religious life more broadly. It is in this context that Barbara Holdrege's massive new book appears, addressed to three types of audiences: "specialists in Indian religion and culture, scholars of Judaica, and comparativists ... interested in ... more th~oretical ... issues" (p. x). Based on a close reading of a vast body ofmaterial drawn from both Hindu and Jewish traditions and a keen awareness of contemporary methodological discussion, her study has four purposes. First, it seeks to demonstrate that scripture, under the respective 110 SHOFAR Spring 1999 Vol. 17, No.3 symbols of Veda and Torah, is not just a textual, but a multileveled cosmic reality within the two religious traditions. Second, it seeks to show that these representations "are not merely lifeless concepts embedded in the traditional texts but have functioned as living, activating symbols that reflect and inform practices with respect to the modes oftransmission, study, and appropriation ofthese two scriptures" (p. 5). Third, by using the very tools of traditional history-of-religions textual scholarship, it aspires to challenge the scholarly conception of texts as "merely" written documents, suggesting that they incline toward functioning as larger-than-textual cosmological principles. Finally, it undertakes to set the demonstrated parallels between Hindu and Jewish conceptions of scripture in a broader comparative context and, by noting important contrasts with Protestant Christian, Theravada Buddhist, and Islamic conceptions of scripture, it invites us to rethink what a "religious tradition" is. Holdrege sets out to accomplish these tasks simultaneously and in integrated fashion. Her analysis unfolds in three parts of decreasing length, each containing two chapters. Part I: The Word in Creation reviews conceptions of "Veda and Creation" from Vedic texts through the six orthodox schools oflndian philosophy, and conceptions · of "Torah and Creation" from pre-Rabbinic through Kabbalistic texts. Part II: From Word to Text surveys "Veda and Cognition" and "Torah and Revelation" across a similar range oftexts, while Part III: Text in Practice examines modes oftransmission, interpretation, and appropriation of Veda and Torah. Each part concludes with a "comparative analysis;' and the book does so with a provocative discussion...