Suksmagama I: Chapters 1-13. Critical Edition.

• Author: Ishimatsu, Ginni
• Position: Suksmagama II: Chapters 14-53. Critical Edition - Book review

Suksmagama I: Chapters 1-13. Critical Edition. Edited with an introduction by S. SAMBANDHASIVACARYA and T GANESAN. Collection Indologie, vol. 114, no. 1. Pondicherry: INsTrruT FRAKAIS DE PONDI-CHERY / ECOLE FRAKAISE D'EXTREME-ORIENT, 2010. Pp. 1 + 203. 650 Rs., [euro] 28.

Suksmagama II: Chapters 14-53. Critical Edition. Edited with an introduction by S. SAMBAN-DHASIVACARYA, B. DAGENS. M.-L. BARAZER-BILLORET, and T GANESAN. Jean Filliozat Series in South Asian Culture and History, no. 3. Pondicherry: INSTITUT FRAKAIS DE PONDICHERY, 2012. Pp. clxiii + 403.

These volumes, containing the first fifty-three chapters of the Suksmagama, joins the list of critical editions of Saiva Agamas in Sanskrit published by the Institut francais de Pondichery (IFP) and the Pondicherry branch of the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO). Beginning in the 1960s under the leadership of Jean Filliozat, N. R. Bhatt began gathering palm-leaf manuscripts and making transcripts of aiva works from libraries and private collections of temple priests at a time when the aiva Agamas were not well known outside of a small circle of religious practitioners and a few scholars. This work eventually led to the world's largest repository of Saiva manuscripts in Sanskrit, jointly housed by the IFP and the EFEO and recognized as part of UNESCO's "Memory of the World" collection. Over the years, the two institutes have produced critical editions of aiva Agamic texts, often with French or English translations, which contain Saivasiddhantin doctrines, rules for rituals and conduct of the initiated, as well as rules for image-making and architecture.

The Suksmagama is named as one of the twenty-eight primary Agamas and also as one of the secondary texts or upagamas; it is not clear which one this text is (or how accurate our lists of texts are, for that matter). It primarily concerns the rules for temple worship, festivals, and the installation of images. As such, the text belongs to the group of Agamas that provide the rules for "worship for the sake of others" or pararthapuja: these texts are distinct from those describing Agamic worship "for one's own sake(atmarthapuja).

These two volumes (of a planned three) offer a critically edited text of over half of the Suksmagama, published for the first time here. The editors, mostly scholars affiliated with the IFP, have edited their text based on several manuscripts belonging to the IFP and the Thiruvavaduthurai Adeenam; the former are...