[INDOLOGY] Annotations in śrī-vidyā-nitya-paddhatiḥ of Sahib Kaul

Sat Jun 24 14:51:25 UTC 2023

  Dear list members,
I received this very interesting reply on another list.  I am posting it
here with his permission. To me the most interesting thing is that in
addition to explaining what the annotations are,  it explains what the
preamble of  ṛṣiḥ,chandas,devatā,bijam,śaktiḥ,kīlakam,and viniyogaḥ before
tantric mantras is.  It  is a  nyāsa to be performed before reciting the
mantra.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: S. Bhattacharyya <sahishnu.bhattacharyya at gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jun 24, 2023 at 2:24 AM
Subject: Re: Annotations in śrī-vidyā-nitya-paddhatiḥ of Sahib Kaul
To: Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>

Dear Mr Spier,

I read your post on the BVP. I believe we may briefly corresponded before.
I am a Hindu ritualist and academic at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi.

I took a look at the manuscript you posted. Paddhati texts, as you will
know, are typically written by and for ritualists like us. And typically -
even now in our modern handwritten and printed paddhatis - we annotate in
the margins for clarity and these are often handed down through
generations. Thus the ritualist's instinct comes in handy when reading such
texts.

I believe these marks are showing the locations for the ṛṣyādi-nyāsa. The
six placements are for the ṛṣi, the cchanda, the devatā, the bīja, the
śakti and a namaskāra (shown on the viniyoga). Thus, the "śi" on "ṛṣi"
means "śirasi" (on the head), indicating the placement of the fingers/hand
when performing the viniyoga rite. Similarly, the "cchanda" is to be placed
on "mu" (="mukhe", on the mouth). The "devatā" is to be placed on the "hṛ"
(="hṛdi", on the heart). This character is tricky, because it looks very
much like a sa/sā. But if you look at p. 93 of the PDF (you have cited this
in your email), there is a "hṛdayāya namaḥ" two lines below the annotation
which can establish that it is possibly a "hṛ" and not a "sa". The "bīja"
is to be placed on "gu" (="guhye", in the genitals) and the "śakti" is to
be placed on the "pā" (="pādayoḥ", on the two feet). Finally, at the
pronouncing of "viniyoga", the ritualist touches all of his body parts and
thus, the notation is "sa" with a special dot, which is "sarvāṇge".

The reason that the notations are necessary is because these placements can
differ by lineage and by ritualist tradition (and innovations are very much
possible). That's why they are not written as part of the main text
themselves. In contrast, on p. 93-94 of the PDF, the karāṇganyāsa does
actually specify locations because that nyāsa is more standardized than
the ṛṣyādi-nyāsa, so variations are unlikely.

I may be mistaken, but you will have to check and verify with the rest of
the text and context as well as with their ritualist traditions. But this
is the system we follow.

As for the extra notations on p. 45 of the PDF, I'm slightly puzzled. This
is unfamiliar to me because (a) it seems to be unique to the srividya
tradition and (b) I don't belong to this srividya tradition. But I can try
and fathom a guess. I can see an "oṃkārastattvaṃ" with a "hṛ" mark, which
makes sense to me because tattva belongs to the hṛdaya. It's strange that
it says "nabhaḥ sthāne" after that with a "pu" annotation. This is not
clear to me because it's specifying a location unlike the other phrases.
Chances are that the writer of the text intended one location and the
annotator inscribed a different opinion (that's possible in ritualist
literature). Also, I checked my notes and found nothing starting with "pu",
so that's a question there. There is a "sa" with a dot after "varṇaḥ", so
that is "sarvāṇge". Finally there is a "kaṃ" after "svara" - w hich I am
guessing - may be "karāṇgule / karāṇgulimūle". I hope that helps in some
way.

Warm regards,
Sahishnu Bhattacharyya

स्वस्तिकामः

श्री सहन भट्टाचार्य्य (सहिष्णु पाराशर्य)
Shrī S. Bhattāchāryya, MSc (Osnabrück),
Centre for Research and Archiving (CRA),
Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD),
Lothian Road, Kashmere Gate, Delhi -110006
Harry Spier

On Thu, Jun 22, 2023 at 8:46 PM Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Dear list members,
> I'm looking at a manuscript of the śrī-vidyā-nitya-paddhatiḥ of Sahib Kaul
> The link to the manuscript on archive.org is:
>
>
> https://archive.org/download/ShriVidyaNityaPaddhatiOfSahibKaulAlm27Shlf260531673KDevanagariTantra/Shri%20Vidya%20Nitya%20Paddhati%20of%20Sahib%20Kaul_Alm_27_shlf_2_6053_1673_K_Devanagari%20-%20Tantra.pdf
>
> The manuscript is full of mantras with the tantric preamble of ṛṣiḥ,
> chandas, devatā, bijaṁ, śaktiḥ , kīlakaṁ and viniyogaḥ.  But what is
> unusual is that where these mantra preambles occur there is an annotation
> in red ink and as far as I can see it is the same annotation
>
> ṛṣiḥ has annotation śi, chandas has annotation mu,
> devatā has annotation sa, bijaṁ has annotation gu,
> śaktiḥ has annotation mā , kīlakaṁ has annotation nā
> viniyogaḥ has annotation sa.
>
> And one mantra has in addition to these, sthane with annotation mū,
> varṇāḥ with annotation sa, svaraḥ with annotation kaṁ
>
> Does anyone have any idea what these annotations are.  I'm particularly
> interested in finding out, because I've been unsuccessfully trying to get
> any information on the tantric preamble of ṛṣiḥ, chandas, devatā, bijaṁ,
> śaktiḥ , kīlakaṁ viniyogaḥ for over 20 years.  I've only seen the most
> basic information (which seems mostly like conjectures) with no references
> to texts.  Such as a tantric text that says your supposed to repeat this
> preamble before mantras..
>
> In the first 120 folios you can see the annotations in these folios
> I'm only giving references to the occurances in the first 120 folios but
> they also occur farther on in the manuscripts.
>
> folio 2b pdf page 6
>
> folio 10b pdf page 23
>
> folio 11b and 12a pdf pages 25-26
>
> folio 12b-13a pdf pages 27-28
>
> folio 21b pdf page 45 regular annotations + sthane with annotation mū,
> varṇāḥ with annotation sa, svaraḥ  with annotation kaṁ
>
> folio 46a pdf page 93
>
> folio 55a pdf page 111
>
> 57a pdf page 115
>
> folio 64b pdf page 130
>
> folio 67a pdf page 135
>
> folio 71a pdf page 141
>
> folios 86b and 87a pdf pages 174 175
>
> folio 89b pdf page 180
>
> folio 92a pdf page 185
>
> folio 94b-95a pdf page 190-191
>
> folio 98 pdf page 197
>
> folio 115a 115b pdf pages 231-232
>
> folio 118 pdf page 237
>
> folio 120a and 120b pdf pages 241-242
>
> Thanks,
> Harry Spier
>
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