New issue of EJVS: Mahadevan on Southern Mbh, Vedic Brahmins & paleography

[FRITS STAAL]

> From what I know or remember: it is just called garuda inthe Tamil country
but it is the same old cayana. Re call I saw the beginning of an
atyagnistoma near Tanchur with two famous brothers whose name will return
to my befiddled ming. f.
> I am at Kanchipuram at this writing, and I have just learnt that the the
> aparazikhA (ApastaMba) tradition also has the garuda ("kite" in Sangam
> poetry) as the usual citi or syena, for the agnicayana,  contrary to my
> earlier information.  I am not able to ascertain yet if this is a
> paNchapatrikaa or Sadpatrikaa bird.  I will be addressing this issue in
> detail in forthcoming work.
> Thennilapuram P. Mahadevan
>
> ________________________________________
> From: Indology [INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Michael Witzel
> [witzel at FAS.HARVARD.EDU]
> Sent: Sunday, July 20, 2008 8:07 AM
> To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk
> Subject: New issue of EJVS: Mahadevan on Southern Mbh, Vedic Brahmins &
> paleography
>
> We are happy to announce a new issue of the Electronic Journal of
> Vedic Studies, Vol. 15, issue 2 (July):
> The Southern Recension of the Mahabaharata,
> Brahman Migrations,
> and Brahmi Paleography
>
> by
>
>     Tennilapuram P. Mahadevan
>
>
> Summary:
>
> The paper  is important  in several respects. It provides evidence
> for the
> early (Sangam period)  movement of Northern  (Madhyadesha) Vedic
> Brahmins into the peninsula and of that of their later successors in
> Pallava
> and Cola time. The first group includes among others, the rare
> schools of
> the Vadhula Taittiriyas, the Kaushitaki Rgvedins and the Jaiminiya
> Samavedins.
>
> The first  group wears the traditional tuft—shikha in Sanskrit and
> kutumi in
> Tamil—toward the front of the head and is known thus as the Purvashikha
> Brahmans; the second group wears it to the back of the head, and thus
> are
> called  Aparashikha Brahmans.
>
> The  Purvashikha group brought the archetype of the Mahabharata or its
> proto-Sharada version to the peninsula, where it  evolved into the
> Southern
> Recension (SR), written in Southern  Brahmi script by the beginning
> of the
> Common Era. It was taken, in Kalabhra times, to Malabar by the
> historical
> Nambudiris.
>
> The SR text initially  also remained behind in the Tamil country with
> the
> historical Sholiya Purvashikhas. The Aparashikha Brahmans arriving
> during
> the Pallava period brought along a Northern Recension (NR) text giving
> rise to the much  inflated Grantha-Telugu versions of the SR text.
>
> This scenario explains the anomalous situation that the Malayalam
> version
> of the  SR is the shortest of the SR texts and that  it is closely
> aligned to the
> Sharada text of Kashmir.  It  also explains the influence of another
> NR text
> on the  Grantha-Telugu versions of the SR text.
>
> Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies (EJVS)
> 2008, Vol.15, Issue 2, p. 43 sqq
> (c) ISSN 1084-7561
>
> -------------------------
>
> Michael Witzel
> witzel at fas.harvard.edu
> www.fas.harvard.edu/~witzel/mwpage.htm
>
> Dept. of Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University
> 1 Bow Street
> Cambridge MA 02138, USA
>
> phone: 1- 617 - 495 3295 (voice & messages), 496 8570, fax 617 - 496
> 8571;
> my direct line (also for messages) :  617- 496 2990
>


Frits Staal

http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/staal