new publications from Pondicherry

[Dominik Wujastyk]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 09 Nov 1998 15:05:01 +0500
From: efeoci <efeoci at md2.vsnl.net.in>
Subject: message from Pondicherry

From:   The Librarian, Anurupa Naik
            Dept. of Indology,
            French Institute of Pondicherry,
            Pondicherry.
--

Subject : Release of new publications


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. 

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