Release of new publications

[efeoci]

NEWLY RELEASED

from the Department of Indology of the French Institute of
Pondicherry and the Centre for Indology of the Ecole
Française d'Extrême-Orient:---

1. Soma'sambhupaddhati : Rituels dans la tradition sivaïte selon
Soma'sambhu. Quatrième partie : rituels optionnels : prati.s.thaa.
Texte, traduction, introduction et notes par Hélène Brunner-Lachaux.
Publications du département d'indologie 25.4. 1998.

Introduction, Sanskrit text, French translation, index.
Pp. lxv, 503. 14 plates. PRICE: Rs. 1100. Postage extra.

2. Bha.t.ta Raamaka.n.tha's Commentary on the Kira.natantra,
volume I: chapters 1--6, critical edition and annotated translation,
Dominic Goodall. Publications du département d'indologie 86.1. 1998.

Introduction, 2 plates (of folios of Grantha manuscripts), Sanskrit
text, English translation, indices. Pp. cxxv, 487. PRICE: Rs. 900.
Postage extra.

The summaries of the two books are given below.

These publications are distributed exclusively by:
Motilal Banarsidass
41,U.A. Bungalow Road,
Jawahar Nagar
Delhi-100 007

In case of any difficulty please contact:
Institut français de Pondichéry
Département d'Indologie
11, St. Louis Street
P.B. 33
Pondicherry-605 001
Tel: 0413-332504
Fax: 0413-335538
E-mail : efeoci at md2.vsnl.net.in


SUMMARY OF Soma'sambhupaddhati , part 4 by Hélène Brunner-Lachaux

The present volume, the fourth and last of our French translation of
Soma'sambhupaddhati, is very homogeneous in content. After
a first chapter that describes the laying of the first stones
(named ``feet'') of a 'Siva temple, the following thirteen deal
exclusively with installations (prati.s.thaa): of images of Gods
('Siva, Gaurii, the Sun, Vi.s.nu); of objects made into divine
images (the door, a pot seen as the heart of the temple,
the superstructures of the vimaana); then of various constructions
ma.tha, pool, well), finally of a tree. The 'sivaprati.s.thaa is dealt with
in two long chapters, and serves as a model for the others; it is
completed by a chapter which describes the extraction of an
old li"nga. Except for the drawing of the characteristic marks on the
li"nga, Soma'sambhu gives no details concerning the material
aspect of things, which actually is of concern to the 'silpin. He
insists on the contrary, as he always does, on those acts which
pertain to the ritual activity of the aacaarya: recitation of mantra-s,
nyaasa-s, homa-s -- but also, rather surprisingly, on the preparation of the
yaagama.n.dapa and on the numerous distributions of bali.

This part of the text was badly preserved in the South, but its
translation has been made possible by new manuscripts
(not used in the first three volumes) from a Nepalese collection.
The book includes a copious introduction, appendices, plates,
a bibliography and a detailed index.


SUMMARY OF Bha.t.ta Raamaka.n.tha's Commentary on the
Kira.natantra, volume I: chapters 1--6. By D. Goodall

This book contains a critical edition and annotated translation of the
first six (of twelve) chapters of the Kashmirian Bha.t.ta
Raamaka.n.tha II's influential, hitherto unpublished
tenth-century Sanskrit commentary on the Kira.natantra,
a scripture of the theological school known as the 'Saiva
Siddhaanta.  The Kira.natantra in fact contains
sixty-four chapters and touches on every aspect of the cult: its
theology, its yoga, its observances, and its rituals and all that
relates to them, including architecture and iconography.
Raamaka.n.tha's commentary, however, covers only the first
portion of the text, which deals with the cult's doctrines.  

The editor's introduction to the text presents newly uncovered
evidence about the lineage of Raamaka.ntha, attempts a
chronological arrangement of his extant works, provides the text of
the surviving fragment of his
Sarvaagamapraamaa.nyopanyaasa, and discusses the
canon of extant tantras of the 'Saiva Siddhaanta that we can assume
to have existed in the tenth century and so to have been accessible to
Raamaka.ntha.

The critical apparatus presents the readings of the four surviving South
Indian palm-leaf manuscripts of the commentary and, in a separate
register, the readings of twenty-seven manuscripts of the tantra
from Nepal and South India.