Vaastusuutropani.sad

[Arlo Griffiths]

Thank you to Antonio and Michael for their responses. Michael of  
course guessed correctly why I posed the question in the first place:  
the Atharvavedic connection, and the riddle of ;Saunaka mantras in a  
commentary from Orissa. It is a curious fact that the village  
Kurumcaini, near Banki, where most if not all of the  
Vaastusuutropani.sad mss. originate, was also the place where I found  
the richest and most accessible collection of Paippalaadasa.mhitaa  
(and other Paippalaada Atharvavedic) manuscripts. Devanaagarii mss.  
from Orissa are not unknown: cf. e.g. the two 'Aa:ngirasakalpa' mss.  
from BORI (discussed by Bahulkar in ABORI 1987: the Oriya numbering  
and occasional Oriya marginalia, that confirm Orissa as these  
manuscripts' provenance, is not noticed there). Of course your notes  
would interest me, Michael.

I may take this chance to point out to those who may have some use  
for them, that several electronic versions of Atharvavedic ancillary  
texts have been put online through GRETIL over the past year:  
Gopathabraahma.na; Atharvapraaya;scittas; Ke;sava's Kau;sikapaddhati;  
Dantyo.s.thavidhi.

Best greetings,

Arlo Griffiths




On Mar 7, 2007, at 2:59 PM, Michael Witzel wrote:

> Sure, Arlo, there have been many stories, but I leave that to the  
> Vastusastra specialists.
>
> (One was that the Gajura of Konarka  --now lying on the ground--  
> was misplaced in a 'refurbished' Vastusastra MS as being on top of  
> the temple, but wrongly so... or something like that. From 25 year  
> old memory.)
>
> What struck me in the Vastu* Up. was that the comm. (worked on by  
> D. Bhattacharya) was all about Saunaka mantras, not as expected in  
> Orissa about Paippalada ones, and that the MS shown in photo was a  
> palm leaf with ... Devanagari script.
>
> You draw your own conclusions....
>
> I have some old notes on this case (on paper) but would have to  
> locate them...
>
> Best,
> Michael
>
>
> On Mar 6, 2007, at 12:36 PM, Arlo Griffiths wrote:
>
>> Dear Indologists,
>>
>> I seem to recall having heard that the same suspicion that  
>> surrounds the authenticity of some of the other texts from Orissa  
>> in whose publication Sadasiva Ratha Sharma has been involved, also  
>> surrounds the Vaastusuutropani.sad, published by A. Boner -- S.R.  
>> Sharma -- B. Bäumer (3rd rev. edition, Delhi 1996).
>>
>> Is anybody aware of reviews of this publication?
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Arlo Griffiths
>> Instituut Kern, Universiteit Leiden
>> Postbus 9515
>> 2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands
>>
>> phone: +31-(0)71-5272622
>> fax: +31-(0)71-5272956
>> email: <arlo.griffiths at let.leidenuniv.nl>
>> <www.kerninstitute.leidenuniv.nl>
>>
>>
> Michael Witzel
> Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University
> 1 Bow Street , 3rd floor, Cambridge MA 02138
> 1-617-495 3295           Fax: 496 8571
> direct line:       496 2990
> <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm>
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eurasian_research/>
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/compmyth>
> <http://users.primushost.com/~india/ejvs/> changed to:
> <http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/>
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ejvs/ >

Arlo Griffiths
Instituut Kern, Universiteit Leiden
Postbus 9515
2300 RA Leiden, the Netherlands

phone: +31-(0)71-5272622
fax: +31-(0)71-5272956
email: <arlo.griffiths at let.leidenuniv.nl>
<www.kerninstitute.leidenuniv.nl>