[INDOLOGY] INDOLOGY Digest, Vol 18, Issue 10

Thu Jul 10 16:41:23 UTC 2014

In reply to James Hartzell’s query on family traditions of Vedic recitation, I offer a short list of references pasted below, skewed towards my own interest in Sāmaveda and South Indian recitation. I’m actually in the initial stages of compiling an online bibliography on the topic of “Vedic Oral Tradition,” and I would appreciate any additional references that our list-members could provide.

= = = = = = = = = = =
Finnian M. M. Gerety
Doctoral Candidate, Department of South Asian Studies
FSC-Harvard Fellow, Film Study Center
Harvard University

Apte, V.M. 1943. “Sound Record of Sāmagānas: A Prospect and Retrospect.” Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute 4: 296-314.
Bake, A.A. 1935. “The Practice of Sāmaveda.” In Proceedings and Transactions of the Seventh All-India Oriental Conference, Baroda, December 1933, 143- 155. Baroda: Oriental Institute.
Fujii, Masato. 2012. “The Jaiminīya Sāmaveda Traditions and Manuscripts in South India.” In Aspects of Manuscript Culture in Ancient India, edited by Saraju Rath, 99-118. Leiden: Brill.
Galewicz, Cezary. 2004. “Katavallur Anyōnyam: A Competition in Vedic Chanting?” In The Vedas: Texts, Language & Ritual : Proceedings of the Third International Vedic Workshop, Leiden 2002, edited by Arlo Griffiths & Jan E.M. Houben, 361-384. Groningen : Egbert Forsten.
———. 2005. “L'Anyōnyam: Un rituel de récitation des textes sacrés au Kerala.”Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales, 60e Année 3: 551-571.
———. 2010. “Inscribing scripture through ritual: on the ritual cycle of the Trisandhā.” In Grammars and Morphologies of Ritual Practices in Asia, edited by Axel Michaels et al., 117-140. Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual 1. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Gerety, Finnian M.M. Forthcoming. "Survivals & Revivals: The Transmission of Jaiminīya Sāmaveda in Modern South India." In Vedic Śākhās: Past, Present, Future. Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest, edited by
Jan E.M. Houben, Julieta Rotaru and Michael Witzel.
Howard, Wayne. 1977. Sāmavedic Chant. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
———. 1983. “The Music of Nambudiri Unexpressed Chant (aniruktagāna).” In Staal, Agni, 2: 311-342.
———. 1986. Veda recitation in Vārāṇasī. Delhi: Motilal Banassidass.
———. 2001.“Prācīna Kauthuma Traditions of South India: Letters from L.S. Rajagopalan, 1985-1988.” In Karttunen & Koskikallio, Vidyārṇavavandanam, 291-302.
Mahadevan, Thennilapuram. 2011.“The Ṛṣi index of the Vedic Anukramaṇī system and the Pravara lists: Toward a Pre-history of the Brahmans.” Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 118 (2). http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com.
———. Forthcoming.“The Kauṣītaki School of the Ṛgveda: A Veda Caraṇa Without a Saṃhitā.” In Vedic Śākhās: Past, Present, Future. Proceedings of the Fifth International Vedic Workshop, Bucharest, edited by
Jan E.M. Houben, Julieta Rotaru and Michael Witzel.
Mahadevan, T.P. and Frits Staal. 2005. “The Turning Point in a Living Tradition: Somayāgam 2003” In Göhler, Indische Kultur im Kontext, 365-389.
Parpola, Asko, 1973. “The literature and study of the Jaiminīya Sāmaveda in retrospect and prospect.” Studia Orientalia, 43 (6): 1-33.
———. 1984.“On the Jaiminīya and Vādhūla Traditions of South India and the Pāṇḍu/Pāṇḍava Problem.” Studia Orientalia 55: 429-468 (3-42).
Parpola, Marjatta. 2000. Kerala Brahmins in Transition: A Study of a Nampūtiri Family. Studia Orientalia 91. Helsinki: Finnish Oriental Society.
Raghavan, V. 1957. “The present position of Vedic Chanting and its future.”Bulletin of the Institute of Traditional Cultures  (Madras University): 48-69.
———. 1962. The present position of Vedic Recitation and Vedic Śākhās. Kumbakonam: Veda Dharma Paripalana Sabha.
Rajagopalan, L.S. 1989. “Studies in Sāma Veda – Some problems encountered.” Pūrṇatrayī: Ravi Varma Saṃskṛta Granthāvalī Journal 16 (1): 7-10.
Rajagopalan, L.S. & Wayne Howard. 1989. “A report on the prācīna Kauthuma Sāmaveda of Palghat.” Journal of the Indian Musicological Society 20 (1-2): 5-16.
Smith, Frederick M. 2001.“The recent history of vedic ritual in Maharashtra.” In Karttunen & Koskikallio, Vidyārṇavavandanam, 443-463.
Staal, J.F. 1958.“Notes on some Brahmin communities of South India.” Art and Letters, Journal of the Royal India Pakistan and Ceylon Society 32: 1-7.
———. 1961. Nambudiri Veda Recitation. Disputationes Rheno-Trajectinae 5. ‘S-Gravenhage: Mouton & Co.
———. 1968. “The Twelve Ritual Chants of the Nambudiri Agniṣṭoma” In Pratidānam: Indian, Iranian, and Indo-European studies presented to Franciscus Bernardus Jacobus Kuiper on his sixtieth birthday, edited by J.C. Heesterman et al., 409-429. The Hague, Paris: Mouton.
———. 1975. “Some Vedic Survivals: Report on Research Done in India Dec. 1970-March 1971.” Journal of the Ganganatha Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha 31: 167-180.
Staal, Frits. 1983. Agni: The Vedic Ritual of the Fire Altar. Two vols. Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press.

On 10-Jul-2014, at 12:00 pm, <indology-request at list.indology.info<mailto:indology-request at list.indology.info>> <indology-request at list.indology.info<mailto:indology-request at list.indology.info>> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

  1. Vedic family recitation traditions (James Hartzell)
  2. Re: Alchemy metaphor (Christopher Wallis)
  3. Re: Alchemy metaphor (Christopher Wallis)
  4. Re: Alchemy metaphor (Dominik Wujastyk)
  5. Re: Obituary of Professor S. Revathy (John Taber)
  6. Yas?odhara's Jayaman?gala? commentary on the Ka?masu?tra
     (Rohana Seneviratne)
  7. Re: Yas?odhara's Jayaman?gala? commentary on the Ka?masu?tra
     (Rohana Seneviratne)
  8. Re: Alchemy metaphor (Ashok Aklujkar)
  9. Re: Yas?odhara's Jayaman?gala? commentary on the Ka?masu?tra
     (Lubin, Tim)

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 20:35:31 +0200
From: James Hartzell <james.hartzell at gmail.com>
To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: [INDOLOGY] Vedic family recitation traditions
Message-ID:
<CAKA8X42GeamGm_EieKLyLpAUREapRgg_PPuWa6kcZO+g42b+tw at mail.gmail.com>
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Dear Colleagues

Might someone point me to the most current descriptions (and earlier ones)
of the surviving family lineages of Vedic recitation practice in India?

Cheers
James

--
James Hartzell, PhD
Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC)
The University of Trento, Italy
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Message: 2
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 12:09:26 -0700
From: Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com>
To: Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com>
Cc: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor
Message-ID:
<CAM3HWN-DW_EtUSH4j0Q8=GzJAnpw8UAZMzwXjZuO=8PeYx5hQQ at mail.gmail.com>
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This is a rather wonderful discussion!  Thanks to all for adding evidence.
The video Dominik posted seems very important insofar as our authors were
in touch with reality, which I like to think they were. Taking account as
best I can of what everyone has said, and the physical evidence, here is my
new translation of the passage. Comments most welcome.

*yad? tu par?m???a-nityatva-vy?pitv?di-dharmakai?varya-ghan?tman?
ahambh?va-siddharasena ??ny?di-deha-dh?tv-anta? vidhyate yena prameyatv?t
tat cyavata iva, tad? turyada??*;
But when [all the layers of limited selfhood] from the Void to the tissues
of the body are penetrated by the ?alchemical elixir? that is the [true]
I-sense?replete with the sovereignty in which the qualities of eternality,
all-pervasiveness, etc. are cognized [as aspects of that ?I?]?through which
[penetration-cum-transmutation] their objectivity falls away as it were,
then that is [called] the Fourth State.
*yad?pi viddho 'sau pr??adeh?di-dh?tu? sa?vid-rasena abhinivi??o ?tyanta?
kanaka-dh?tur iva j?r?a? kriyate yena sa druta-rasa iva ?bh?ti kevala?
tat-sa?sk?ra?, tad?pi tury?t?ta-da?? s? bhavati*
When, further, these elements of *pr?**?a*, body, etc., penetrated by the
elixir of Consciousness, are thoroughly permeated [by it], they are [then]
?digested? like the element of gold [is by mercury], by which the
?liquified essence? [of consciousness], their purifier, alone appears ?
then too it becomes the state Beyond the Fourth.

On 9 July 2014 05:36, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:

Trying to firm up the idea that vedh- means convert, transmute, or (for
the philosophers among us, perhaps) transubstantiate.

The *Rasaratnasamuccaya* is a kind of late-ish nibandha text that brings
together, organizes and medicalizes the earlier, more tantric alchemical
literature.  Meulenbeld argues that it is datable to the sixteenth century
(HIML IIA 670).  Earliest dated MS: 1699 CE.  This text is not bad as a
representative of the developed ("classical"?) rasa??stra tradition; one
would expect less standardization of vocab. in earlier texts.

At *Rasaratnasamuccaya* 8.94-95
<http://sarit.indology.info/newphilo/getobject.pl?c.7:8:165.indologica>
there is a definition of ?abdavedha.
from blowing of iron, with mercury in the mouth, there is the creation of
goldenness and silverness. That is known as Word-vedha.
and the commentator makes it even more explicity that this is
transmutation, using pari-?am.  *Rasaratnasamuccayabodhin?* on 8.95
<http://sarit.indology.info/newphilo/getobject.pl?c.7:8:166.indologica>:
... *tat lauhakha??a? svar??dir?pe?a pari?atam//*
that bit of iron is converted into the form of gold etc.

... yatra vedhe svar??dir?pe?a pari?amet sa ?abdavedha ityartha?//
Word-vedha is where it converts with the form of gold etc. ...

The operation being described here is not unclear.  The alchemist puts a
piece of mercury in his mouth and blows on a piece of iron.  It becomes
golden or silvery.  This "becoming" is "vedha."

The *Bodhin?* authors were ??ubodha and Nityabodha (hence the witty
title), the sons of J?v?nanda Vidy?s?gara Bha??ac?rya, and the *Bodhin?*
was published in Calcutta in 1927.  So it's arguable that their
interpretation was influenced by 19th-20th century thought.  However, their
commentary is very ??stric and elaborate (note the P??inian grammatical
parsing, "dhama dh?vane ityasm?t lyu?" (>P.1.3.134 and pac?di ?k?tiga?a).
And as Meulenbeld points out, they cite an exceptionally wide range of
earlier rasa??stra texts (HIML IIA 671-2).  Their interpretations are based
on a close reading of classical rasa??stra literature.  At the very least,
one can say that their view represents the understanding of learned
panditas in turn of the century Calcutta, that vedha meant pari??ma, or
transmutation.

Best,
Dominik

Dominik

On 9 July 2014 12:27, Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com> wrote:

On 9 July 2014 11:26, Matthew Kapstein <mkapstei at uchicago.edu> wrote:

I have a vague recollection, by the way, of discussing this with David
Pingree back in the 80s, and he pointed me to an old, but interesting
monograph on Indian chemistry (not alchemy) that had some interesting
things to say about vedh-. I?ll try to locate the reference, but no doubt
others on this list will be more familiar with the literature in this area.

?I imagine David was thinking of P. C. Ray's *History of Hindu
Chemistry? * (link
<https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3iamb3e84kp2o2k/AADzPHJXs8rxHNgRsINzLVH9a>)

Best,
Dominik

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Message: 3
Date: Wed, 9 Jul 2014 15:23:27 -0700
From: Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com>
To: Dominik Wujastyk <wujastyk at gmail.com>
Cc: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Alchemy metaphor
Message-ID:
<CAM3HWN9FKEvmMye5FGqHv5YCdhNDP=SYPeA-X_iqBnmkmCwp1Q at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Having looked at White's book The Alchemical Body, I can report that he
frequently takes *vedha *in the sense of "transmute" and
"transubstantiate". Of course, he is not a Sanskritist but an historian of
religion.  Dominik, is it true that vedha is often listed as the
seventeenth samsk?ra after the 16 rasa-sa?sk?ras, and is seen as their
fruit?  For such he claims in that book.

best, CW

On 9 July 2014 12:09, Christopher Wallis <bhairava11 at gmail.com> wrote: