[INDOLOGY] Meaning of parikarman

Tue Sep 2 02:14:46 UTC 2025

Hi David,

Thank you very much for your three references  and the commentator’s interpretations. Another member had sent me the first two. I am giving below the translations of the second and third reference as given in MLBD’s, which I think was edited by J. L. Shastri.

4.23.11. His (Prthu's) mind became purely Sāttvic (without any admixture of other guṇas like rajas and tamas) through adoration and service of the Lord.

9.15.17. “Arjuna, a prominent Ksatriya and the ruler of Haihayas (a branch of Yadavas) propitiated Datta (Dattatreya), a partial (aṃśa) incarnation of Lord Narayana, by rendering to him various acts of service (and worship).”

According to Monier-Williams, paricarya means ‘attendance, service, devotion, worship’. 

The basic meaning of pari-karman seems to be ‘services/acts around something/someone’.  Worship seems to be something the commentator reads into and the translator has incorporated based on the commentator.

The Tamil inscription I am looking at mentions two types of services, nampu, and devakarma. Nampu is clearly ‘to do pujā’ because the verb used is ‘pūjittu’. Devakarma seems to involve causing ‘parikarma’ to happen and scrutinizing/supervising any deficiencies in the pūjā. Here parikarma seems to refer to all activities/tasks that go on in the temple that support the central function of the temple pūjā. In addition, the person doing devakarma is also supposed to do acts involving trust and responsibility suggesting a management or trusteeship role.

I was interested in this issue because earlier scholars have interpreted the term  devakarma occurring in the Kūram plates as referring to actual worship.

I would welcome your comments.

Thanks again

Regards,

Palaniappan

From: "Buchta, David" <david_buchta at brown.edu>
Date: Monday, September 1, 2025 at 7:09 AM
To: "palaniappa at aol.com" <palaniappa at aol.com>
Cc: indology list <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Meaning of parikarman

Hi Palaniappan,

The word occurs in the Bhāgavata at 2.9.29, 4.23.11, and 9.15.17 (numbering according to J. L. Shastri's edition with Śrīdhara's commentary). Śrīdhara glosses it at 2.9.29 with sevā, and at 4.23.11 and 9.15.17 with paricaryā.

I hope this helps.

Best,

Dave

--
David Buchta, PhD
Senior Lecturer in Sanskrit
Department of Classics
Brown University

On Tue, Aug 26, 2025 at 9:28 PM Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Indologists,

The word parikarmam occurs in a Tamil temple inscription. Monier-Williams (p. 591, column 3) glosses parikarman as meaning ‘attendance, worship, adoration’ based on the Bhāgavatapurāṇa. I would really appreciate if specialists in the text could cite the specific reference and the actual meaning/s.

Thank you in advance.

Regards,

Palaniappan

_______________________________________________
INDOLOGY mailing list
INDOLOGY at list.indology.info
https://list.indology.info/mailman/listinfo/indology

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology/attachments/20250901/08c302b8/attachment.htm>