Early Śaivism and the Skandapurāṇa: Introduction

Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great …, 2008

Indo-Iranian Journal, 2016

The Sanskrit liṅga pedestal inscriptions produced in the Kathmandu Valley during the Licchavi period between 466 and 645 CE are the earliest dated sources for local Śaiva religious activities. This article aims at a comprehensive survey and analysis of this group of inscriptions, examining (1) their material aspects and locations, (2) donative patterns and related social and economic features, such as the prominent agency of merchants and women of high rank, and (3) religious concepts linked to the spiritual and soteriological reasons for establishing the liṅgas, as expressed in the donative formulas. In addition, these formulas will be compared to contemporaneous prescriptive literature (e.g. the Śivadharmaśāstra) as well as to Buddhist donative practices. As will be shown, the Pashupatinath temple emerged as a key site in the propagation and shaping of liṅga worship, with the accumulation of wealth and related socio-religious activities contributing to the appearance of local Pāśu...

Indic Manuscript Cultures through the Ages, 2017

This article offers insights into the processes and context of production, in medieval Nepal, of the so-called 'Śivadharma-corpus', a collection of eight works revolving around topics related to the practices and beliefs of lay Śaiva householders and the establishment of a Śaiva social-religious order. Our focus is on the earliest extant manuscript containing a version of the entire corpus, namely manuscript G 4077 of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, dated to 1036 CE. What is exceptional about this manuscript is that it contains a unique work called Lalitavistara as the final member of the corpus, while missing the Dharmaputrikā, which from the second half of the 11 th century onwards was always transmitted as the last work in 'mainstream' versions of the Śivadharma corpus. While giving some insights into the production of the corpus shortly before it reached its stable form by the 12 th century, we also offer an overview of the contents of the Lalitavistara, as well as a study of its topics and sources, proving its connections with the Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda of the Śivadharma corpus. We also show how both works heavily draw on and are inspired by the Mahābhārata, and how the compositional strategies may reflect the socio-religious and cultural milieu of the Kathmandu Valley at the time. 1 Early stages of corpus formation The Śivadharma corpus is a collection of eight early Śaiva works whose study is proving to be crucial for our understading of the formation of lay Śaiva religion in the early medieval period. Their titles, following the arrangement given by the manuscript of the Cambridge UL Add.1645, are: Śivadharmaśāstra, Śivadharmottara, Śivadharmasaṃgraha, Śivopaniṣad, Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda, Uttarottaramahāsaṃvāda, Vṛṣasārasaṃgraha, and Dharmaputrikā. Mainly addressing the sphere of lay householders, these works provide rules of behaviour in the practice of rituals and towards religious institutions, setting out a normative and doctrinal system On the Production of Śaiva Works and their Manuscripts in Medieval Nepal | 591 (9 th cent.) (10 th-11 th cent.) G 4077 (1036 CE) (1069 CE) Add.1645 (1138-39 CE)

South Asian Studies, 2021

Indic Manuscript Cultures through the Ages. Material, textual and historical investigations, 2017

This article offers insights into the processes and context of production, in medieval Nepal, of the so-called 'Śivadharma-corpus', a collection of eight works revolving around topics related to the practices and beliefs of lay Śaiva householders and the establishment of a Śaiva social-religious order. Our focus is on the earliest extant manuscript containing a version of the entire corpus, namely manuscript G 4077 of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, dated to 1036 CE. What is exceptional about this manuscript is that it contains a unique work called Lalitavistara as the final member of the corpus, while missing the Dharmaputrikā, which from the second half of the 11 th century onwards was always transmitted as the last work in 'mainstream' versions of the Śivadharma corpus. While giving some insights into the production of the corpus shortly before it reached its stable form by the 12 th century, we also offer an overview of the contents of the Lalitavistara, as well as a study of its topics and sources, proving its connections with the Umāmaheśvarasaṃvāda of the Śivadharma corpus. We also show how both works heavily draw on and are inspired by the Mahābhārata, and how the compositional strategies may reflect the socio-religious and cultural milieu of the Kath-mandu Valley at the time.

Koṫīvarṡa/Koṫivarṡa, alias Devīkoṫa and Śoṅitapura, in North Bengal is known to be one of the early centres of Tantric Śaivism. In this paper, the history of Śaivism at the site up to the twelfth century will be examined, using textual, archaeological and epigraphical sources, of which the two recensions of the Skandapurā˙na are the main material. The study reveals a strong local tradition of goddess worship throughout the period. The site was subsumed under Śaivism possibly by the fourth century; thereafter, diverse streams of Tantric Śaivism-goddess-oriented followers of the Yāmala scriptures and the orthodox Saiddhāntikas-took hold there in different periods and interacted with the local tradition of goddess worship.

Origin and growth of the Purāṇic text …, 2004

Indo-Iranian Journal, 2021

2010

One of the features of the Gupta-Vākāt . aka age is the growth ofŚaivism. In this article some of the epigraphical evidence for this process is assembled and discussed. While the direct evidence for the adoption ofŚiva worship among the Guptas is limited to ministers of the Gupta court, it is clear that the Vākāt . aka kings were predominantly Māheśvaras. New fragmentary wall inscriptions uncovered from Mansar, the site of Pravarasena II's palace, hint at a possible connection with the teachings of thé Svetāśvatara-Upanis . ad. Two post-Gupta inscriptions from the area around Mandasor are discussed in the light of a tendency towards religious hierarchisation, an attitude which came to be increasingly characteristic of early medievalŚaivism. In the second part attention is drawn to the variety of Pāśupata and Māheśvara worship in the Gupta-Vākāt . aka age, as well as to the trifold organisation of the Pāśupata movement. The article ends with a note on the interaction with non-Śaiva traditions, in particular Buddhism, and its possible impact upon the formation of the Pāśupata movement. * This article is an extended version of a paper I gave at the Symposium 'The Gupta-Vākāt . aka Age ', British Museum, London, June 29-30, 2009. I would like to thank the organisers, Hans Bakker and Michael Willis, for inviting me to give a presentation on the present subject. This is the first publication to appear in the context of the research project 'EarlyŚaiva Mythology: A study of the formative period of an integrated religious vision', a collaboration between Peter Bisschop and Harunaga Isaacson, kindly funded by a three year grant of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). I am grateful to Hans Bakker, Harunaga Isaacson and Michael Willis for their critical comments on an earlier draft.