Dear Madhav and Tim,

Thank you Madhav for your good suggestion about Atharvaśiras and Atharvaśīrṣa. Thank you Tim for your qualifying comments about this idea. Even after considering it for a couple of days, I am still not clear about it.

I understand the Vācaspatyam's definition of nirvāṇa-mastaka, nirvāṇam nirvṛtir mastakam iva yatra, as saying that this nirvāṇa is like the head. Whereas, in the second verse you quoted, Tim, the construal is atharvaṇaḥ śiro, the head of atharvan. But we cannot say for nirvāṇa-mastaka, the head of nirvāṇa. Is this the point?

In any case, until we can find a textual source for nirvāṇa-mastaka, we do not know how or in what context it is used.

Best regards,

David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 5:24 AM, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@umich.edu> wrote:
Thanks, Tim.  Looking forward to your edition of this text.

Madhav

On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 11:56 PM, Lubin, Tim <LubinT@wlu.edu> wrote:
Madhav, 
It is very hard to say whether there could be any connection since other occurrences are not known, but it seems unlikely to me.  The Atharvaśiras in its extant form(s) includes, near the end, two stanzas from the Atharvaveda that justify the name of the text itself:

7.2     mūrdhānam asya saṃsīvyātharvā hṛdayaṃ ca yat |

mastiṣkād ūrdhvaṃ prairayat   pavamāno ’dhi śīrṣṇaḥ ||

(= PS 16.59.9 / ~ŚS 10.2.26)


7.3     tad vā atharvaṇaḥ śiro   devakośaḥ samubjitaḥ |

tat prāṇo abhi rakṣati    śiro annam atho manaḥ ||

(~ PS 16.59.10 [rakṣatu, śriyam] / ŚS 10.2. 27)


PS = Paippalādasaṃhitā, ŚS = Śaunakasaṃhitā.  Some recensions have these in the 6th section.
Older references to the “Atharvaśiras” (e.g., in the Mahābhārata and in sūtras) seem to refer to a mantra text of some sort, thought to encapsulate the essence of the Atharvāṅgirasaḥ.  My edition will include a full discussion.
Atharvaśirṣa is just a synonymous name of the text, in common use later, esp. in Maharashtra where a set of five distinct devotional works circulated under the names Rudrātharvaśīrṣa (or Śivātharvaśīrṣa), Devyatharvaśīrṣa, etc.

Best,

Tim

Timothy Lubin
Professor of Religion and Adjunct Professor of Law
Chair of the Department of Religion
Washington and Lee University
Lexington, Virginia 24450

http://home.wlu.edu/~lubint 



From: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> on behalf of Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info>
Reply-To: Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh@umich.edu>
Date: Friday, January 13, 2017 at 4:13 PM
To: David and Nancy Reigle <dnreigle@gmail.com>
Cc: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] textual source for nirvāṇa-mastaka

I wonder if this term can be compared with names of the Upanishads like Atharvaśiras and Atharvaśīrṣa.  

Madhav Deshpande
Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

On Fri, Jan 13, 2017 at 3:10 PM, David and Nancy Reigle via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Has anyone seen the Sanskrit term nirvāṇa-mastaka in use? It appears in A Dictionary in Sanscrit and English, by H. H. Wilson, 2nd ed., 1832 (not in his 1st ed., 1819), defined simply as "liberation." From there it was copied in the Petersburg Wörterbuch (defined as Erlösung) and in the Monier-Williams dictionary (defined as liberation, deliverance), both of which give only Wilson as their source for this term. It is not in the Śabda-kalpa-druma, but is in the Vācaspatyam, defined as: nirvāṇam nirvṛtir mastakam iva yatra. Various searches by me have so far failed to turn up this term in a Sanskrit text. Hoping that one of you has seen it in use and can give a textual source for it.

Best regards,

David Reigle
Colorado, U.S.A.

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