Somasambhupaddhati: Rituels dans la tradition sivaite selon Somasambhu, pt. 4: Rituels optionnels: Pratistha. Texte, traduction et notes.

• Author: Couture, Andre
• Position: Book Review

By HELENE BRUNNER-LACHAUX. Publications du departement d'indologie, vol. 25.4. Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRANCAIS DE PONDICHERY / ECOLE FRANCAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT, 1998. Pp. lxviii + 514.

This book is the last in a four-volume set of the translation of the manual of rituals (paddhati) composed in the eleventh century by a Saivasiddhantin named Somasambhu. This fourth volume deals specifically with the establishment (pratistha) of divine powers in a variety of concrete forms, viz., the stones forming the feet of a temple (ch. 1), the Saiva linga (chs. 2-3), the goddess Gauri (ch. 4), the Sun or Aditya (ch. 5), the god Visnu (ch. 6), the deities of the door (ch. 7), the vase that is identified with the soul of the temple (i.e., the kumbha) (ch. 8), the crest or culaka, the standard-post, the flag of the temple, and the temple itself (ch. 9), a new linga after the removal of the old one (ch. 10), a monastery or matha (ch. 11), a tank (ch. 12), a well (ch. 13), a tree (ch. 14). As in the preceding volumes, the Sanskrit text appears on the right-hand page opposite its translation on the left-hand page, while the main parallel Sanskrit texts am presented beneath the Sanskrit original and detailed notes beneath the translation, sometimes spilling over into the section devoted to the main textual variants.

As we have come to expect from Mme. Brunner-Lachaux, the Sanskrit text has been edited with the greatest of care and the translation carded out in the most faithful manner possible. For this volume, she was inspired by a personal communication from Alexis Sanderson and made use of the Agni-Purana, whose chapters 72 to 103 have been more or less faithfully copied from this paddhati. Actually, all the chapters contained in the present volume appear in this purana, with the exception of chapters 6 and 11, and a few other very brief chapters, viz., 12, 13, and 14. The compilation of the Agni-Purana, the author points out, certainly preceded the proliferation of manuscrits of this paddhati in South India, "car le texte de Somagambhu que l'on trouve la ne porte pas la trace des accidents (omissions, additions, et surtout deplacement d'un bloc de vingt et un sloka) qui affectent ces derniers et, a leur suite l'edition de Devakottai, et qu'il est en general meilleur" (p. lx). It appears clear that a thorough use of the Agni-Purana in this fourth volume (even if, as the author notes, the Kashi edition of this purana has not always chosen the best reading from...