Drum Example

[Arlo Griffiths]

The ritual tradition of the Atharvaveda makes use of a fundamental  
trifurcation in all rituals, between

1) an invariable first phase called puurvatantra
2) a variable phase comporting a specific homa
3) an invariable final phase called UTTARATANTRA

See the scheme on pp. VI-VII of Caland's Altindische Zauberritual.  
The scheme is already implied in the oldest ritual Suutra of this  
tradition, the Kau;sikasuutra, which is likely to be older than the  
mentioned medical texts, but in this meaning the word uttaratantra  
itself apparently first occurs in a few Atharvavedapari;si.s.tas  
(which are very hard to date but almost certainly, for the most part,  
too late to be relevant for Stephen Hodge's Buddhist texts).

If you take a representative batch of e-texts from GRETIL, make sure  
to include "Kausikapaddhati, by Kesava" in it, and then do a multi- 
file search for "ttaratantr", it will become evident how important  
this term is in Atharvavedic ritualism (other Atharvavedic paddhati's  
give similarly high numbers of occurrences).

Arlo Griffiths



On Oct 25, 2008, at 1:30 PM, G.J. Meulenbeld wrote:

> Dear colleague,
>
> Apart from the Uttaratantra of the Susrutasamhita, a  
> Carakottaratantra is known from
> quotations.
> See on it my "A history of Indian medical literature" IA, 99--100.
>
> Jan Meulenbeld
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Stephen Hodge"  
> <s.hodge at PADMACHOLING.PLUS.COM>
> To: <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
> Sent: Saturday, October 25, 2008 4:22 AM
> Subject: Re: Drum Example
>
>
>> Thank you and Jan for the useful reply.  I would never have though  
>> that Susruta would mention a "remedy" like that.   Though, now I  
>> think about it, it I should have considered that possibility since  
>> this cycle of texts is chock-a-block with teaching examples based  
>> on ayurveda -- more so than any other Buddhist material I have  
>> seen elsewhere.  Indeed, I have wondered whether the target  
>> audience was the medical profession.
>>
>> Actually, in connection with this, would you know if the term  
>> "uttaratantra" was first used in connection with the Samhita or  
>> had it been used previously ?   The texts I am dealing with are  
>> probably the first Buddhist ones to do so and they should be dated  
>> c80 - c120CE.
>>
>> Many thanks,
>> Stephen Hodge
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dominik Wujastyk"  
>> <ucgadkw at UCL.AC.UK>
>> To: <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
>> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 3:43 PM
>> Subject: Re: Drum Example
>>
>>
>> oh, how interesting!  This thing about beating smeared drums for  
>> health
>> occurs in the Susrutasamhita too, in a section of the Kalpasthana on
>> curing poisoning that may affect a population as a whole.  The  
>> caustic
>> paste is smeared on drums, banners and doorways in the town.
>>
>>
>> I mention this briefly in Roots of Ayurveda, 3rd ed., pp.78--9.
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Dr Dominik Wujastyk
>> Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow
>> University College London

Arlo Griffiths
École française d'Extrême-Orient (Jakarta)
Instituut Kern, Universiteit Leiden