PuNDarIka sacrifice

Mon Apr 2 12:32:37 UTC 2012

Dear François,

just a short addition: The Rājguru of Savāī Jaisingh, Ratnākara Dīkṣita 
Mahāśabde, was given the title Samrāṭ and Puṇḍārīka (or Pauṇḍarīka). The 
titles are linked to the Vājapeya- and Puṇḍarīka-sacrifices performed in 
1709 and 1713.
See: Horstmann, Monika. 2009. Der Zusammenhalt der Welt. Religiöse 
Herrschaftslegitiation und Religionspolitik Mahārājā Savāī Jaisinghs 
(1700-1743). Harrassowitz. On Ratnākara pp. 24-39.
P. 25, fn. 41 "Bei dem Puṇḍarīka-Opfer handelt es sich um ein 
einundzwanzigtägiges Soma-Opfer". So now we have to check whether 11 or 
21 days is correct.
Best

Joerg

Am 02.04.2012 14:08, schrieb Jan E.M. Houben:
> Dear François,
> It must be the same as pauNDarIka: e.g. .Sa.dvB 4.3.4, K;S 23.5.37; 
> Hillebrandt does not refer to it particularly but generically under 
> ahIna.
> Modern performance: the Pravargya I filmed in Delhi in 1996 
> (http://www.jyotistoma.nl/EN/pravargya/Pravargya100Introduction.asx) 
> was part of a pauNDarIka (11 pressing day) Soma yAga.
> Jan
>
> On 2 April 2012 12:09, Francois Voegeli <francois.voegeli at gmail.com 
> <mailto:francois.voegeli at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     Dear Members of the Indology List,
>
>     I recently stumbled on a sacrifice called "puNDarIka-" in a Gupta
>     inscription edited by Fleet (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum vol.
>     III, No. 59, pp. 252–254, "Bijayagadh Stone Pillar Inscription of
>     Vishnuvardhana").
>     In this inscription it is said that having performed the
>     "puNDarIka", king ViSNuvardhana erected a yUpa: "kRtau puNDarIke
>     yUpo yam pratiSThApitas [...] zrI ViSNuvarddhanena" (Fleet op.
>     cit. p. 253, l. 3). This post seems to be the stone pillar where
>     this inscription is found and which is shaped like a vedic yUpa,
>     set up on a platform near the south wall of a fort now located at
>     Bayana in the Bharatpur District of Rajasthan.
>
>     I cannot see exactly what kind of sacrifice this "puNDarIka" is.
>     It is nowhere to be found in the lexicons devoted to Vedic ritual
>     (Renou 1954, Sen 1978, Mylius 1995), or in fundamental textbooks
>     on ritual like that of Hillebrandt (1897, repr. 1981), or in the
>     section of Kane's Hist. of Dh. devoted to sacrifices and rituals
>     (Vol. II pp. 976–1255).
>
>     The dictionaries (MW, PW) give, among the possible meanings of
>     puNDarIka, "a kind of sacrifice/ein best. Opfer" with references
>     to the MahAbhArata, among which the most significant I could find
>     seems to be:
>
>     MBh 3.13.16 azvamedho rAjasUyaH puNDarIko 'tha gosavaH / etair api
>     mahAyajJair iSTaM te bhUridakSiNaiH.
>
>     There it is said to be a "great sacrifice". In this context this
>     qualification seems to imply that it is a zrauta ritual, as it is
>     mentioned together with other well known zrauta sacrifices
>     described by the ZrautasUtras, most of them regalians, but the
>     ZrautasUtras do not, to my knowledge, describe any kind of
>     puNDarIka rite.
>
>     A puNDarIka sacrifice is otherwise mentioned a number of times as
>     bringing some unspecified but usually great reward in the "tIrtha"
>     section of the MBh (3.81–82; e.g. ), where we also learn that
>     there was a "puNDarIka" place of pilgrimage, and that going there
>     rewards the pilgrim with the fruits of a... puNDarIka sacrice (MBh
>     3.18.69 zuklapakSe dazamyAM tu puNDarIkaM samAvizet, tatra snAtvA
>     naro rAjan puNDarIkaphalaM labhet).
>     In this section of the MBh the puNDarIka sacrifice sometimes
>     appears close to, or is contrasted with, the azvamedha, e.g. in
>     MBh 3.82.24ff., or the vAjapeya in a surprising passage where a
>     yUpa appears, but we do not know if it was erected for/as a result
>     of a sacrifice and which kind it could have been:
>
>     MBh 3.82.74–75 tato brahmasaro gacched dharmAraNyopazobhitam /
>     pauNDarIkam avApnoti prabhAtAm eva zarvarIm [74] tasmin sarasi
>     rAjendra brahmaNo yUpa ucchritaH / yUpaM pradakSiNaṃM kRtvA
>     vAjapeyaphalaM labhet
>
>     Another passage of the MBh where puNDarIka and vAjapeya appear
>     side by side is 2.5.89 kratUn ekacitto vAjapeyAMz ca sarvazaH /
>     puNDarIkAMz ca kArtsnyena yatase kartum AtmavAn.
>
>     Both MBh 2.5.89 and 3.28.74–75 seem to rule out the possibility
>     that "puNDarIka" may sometimes have been a synonym of "vAjapeya"
>     in the MBh, as I first thought could have been the case.
>     The data I have collected so far nevertheless suggest that this
>     "puNDarIka" sacrifce was a zrauta ceremony of some kind, that
>     involved the erection of a yUpa, and thus an animal sacrifice
>     following the Vedic norms.
>
>     Could anyone on the list tell me more about this sacrifice? All
>     help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>     Thanks in advance,
>
>     Dr François Voegeli
>
>     Senior FNS Researcher
>     Institut d'Archéologie et des Sciences de l'Antiquité
>     Anthropole, bureau 4018
>     Faculté des Lettres
>     Université de Lausanne
>     CH-1015 Lausanne
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Prof. Dr. Jan E.M. Houben,
> Directeur d Etudes « Sources et Histoire de la Tradition Sanskrite »
> Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, SHP,
> A la Sorbonne,45-47, rue des Ecoles,
> 75005 Paris -- France.
> JEMHouben at gmail.com <mailto:JEMHouben at gmail.com>
> www.jyotistoma.nl <http://www.jyotistoma.nl>
>

-- 
Priv.-Doz. Dr. Jörg Gengnagel
Heidelberg University
Interim Professor (Professurvertretung)
Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)
Collaborative Research Center 619 "Dynamics of Ritual"
Head of Subproject B5 "Court Ritual in the Jaipur State"
Modern South Asian Languages and Literatures
www.ritualdynamik.uni-hd.de
www.benares.uni-hd.de

South Asia Institute
Department of Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)
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