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@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@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@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