00

Document Outline

• Holy Ground: Where Art and Text Meet: Studies in the Cultural History of India
• Copyright
• Table of Contents

Part I Early Studies 1986–2000

• 1 An Indian Image of Man: An Inquiry into a change of perspective in the Hindu world-view

  • Introduction

  • The Indian understanding of perfect man

    • The ‘Raw Material’
    • The Sufis
    • The Yogis
    • The Sants
    • The Bhaktas

  • Epilogue

• 2 Die Indische Herausforderung: Hegels Beitrag zu einer europäischen kulturhistorischen Diskussion

  • Einleitung

  • Die Jahre 1820–1825

    • Neue Einsichten

  • Die Jahre 1826–1831

    • Die Rezeption der Bhagavadgītā
    • Von Humboldts Bhagavadgītā Vorträge und Hegels Kritik

  • Schlussbetrachtung

    • Schlussmoral

• 3 Ayodhyā: le nom et le lieu

  • Ayodhyā conçue : le nom
  • Ayodhyā retrouvée : le lieu
    • Illiers–Combray

• 4 Ayodhyā: A Hindu Jerusalem: An investigation of ‘Holy War’ as a religious idea in the light of communal unrest in India

  • Introduction

  • Holy war as a religious idea

    • Five conditions of ‘holy war’

  • The Hindu religion and the social reality of war

    • The advent of Islam

  • The segregation of the Hindu and Muslim communities

    • The idea of the Rāma rājya
    • The Kingdom of Avadh
    • The emerging conflict around the Babri Masjid in Ayodhyā

  • Ayodhyā: a Hindu Jerusalem

    • The fight for the Rāmajanmabhūmi/Babri Masjid

  • Epilogue

• 5 The Ramtek Inscriptions I

  • Introduction

  • The graffiti

  • The two short Kevala–Narasiṃha Temple inscriptions

    • Kevala–Narasiṃha Temple Ramtek Inscription No. 1
    • Kevala–Narasiṃha Temple Ramtek Inscription No. 2

  • The Ramtek Stone Inscription of the time of Rāmacandra

    • Synopsis of the contents
    • Editorial principles
    • Edition
    • Translation

• 6 The Ramtek Inscriptions II: The Vākāṭaka inscription in the Kevala–Narasiṃha Temple (Together with Harunaga Isaacson)

  • Introduction

    • Palaeography
    • Note on the edition and translation

  • Text

    • Divergent readings of Jamkhedkar’s edition
    • Translation
    • Annotation

  • Analysis and interpretation

    • Vākāṭaka Gupta relations

• 7 Throne and Temple: Political power and religious prestige in Vidarbha

  • Introduction

  • The Vākāṭaka period

    • The Vākāṭaka inscriptions
    • Policy of the Vākāṭaka kings

  • The Yādava period

  • Ramtek Hill: Theatre of Plenipotentiaries

• 8 Little Kṛṣṇa’s Play with the Moon

  • The literary evidence

    • Baby Kṛṣṇa’s play with the moon

  • The archaeological evidence

  • Conclusion

• 9 Some Methodological Considerations with Respect to the Critical Edition of Puranic Literature

  • Introduction

  • The theory of ‘oral composition’

    • Composition-in-transmission

  • The critical edition of epic and puranic literature

  • The critical edition of the Ayodhyāmāhātmya

• 10 Pārvatī’s Svayaṃvara: Studies in the Skandapurāṇa I

  • Introduction

  • The wedding of Śiva and Parvatī

    • Śiva’s exclusion from the sacrifice
    • Śiva as the cosmic child
    • Pārvatī’s Svayaṃvara

  • The synoptic edition of the Svayaṃvara myth

    • Conclusion

  • Pārvatī’s Svayaṃvara: A Textual Reconstruction

• 11 Mokṣadharma 187 and 239–241 Reconsidered (Together with Peter Bisschop)

  • Preamble

  • Three themes

    • The five elements
    • The intellectual apparatus
    • Sattva and kṣetrajña
      • The ‘evolution theory’

  • The Mokṣadharma: a plurality of views

  • Appendix: Some parallels of Mokṣadharma 187 and 239–241

• 12 Observations on the History and Culture of Dakṣiṇa Kosala (5th to 7th centuries ad)

  • Introduction

  • The Pāṇḍavas of Mekalā

  • The family descending from Amara in Kosala

  • The rulers of Śarabhapur

  • The Pāṇḍuvaṃśa of Śrīpura

    • The date of the Pāṇḍuvaṃśa dynasty of Śrīpura
    • Tīvaradeva
    • Mahāśivagupta Bālārjuna

  • Tālā

    • The Jiṭhānī Temple

• 13 Somaśarman, Somavaṃśa and Somasiddhānta A Pāśupata tradition in seventh-century Dakṣiṇa Kosala: Studies in the Skandapurāṇa III

  • Harāya Namaḥ

  • Śaiva cosmology

  • The Pāśupata movement

  • The epigraphical evidence from Malhar

  • Malhar (Junvānī) Copperplates of Mahāśivagupta, Year 57: ll. 8–23

    • Translation
    • Interpretation

  • Somaśarman and the Somasiddhānta

  • The evidence of the Skandapurāṇa

  • Somaśarman, Somavaṃśa and Somasiddhānta

+ Part II: Studies in the Early History and Culture of North India

• 14 A Theatre of Broken Dreams: Vidiśā in the days of Gupta hegemony

  • Prologue

  • Act 1: Rāmagupta

    • The story of the Devīcandragupta
    • Candragupta’s matrimonial policy and the triangle of power

  • Act 2 Govindagupta

    • The testimony of Prabhākara

  • Act 3 Ghaṭotkacagupta

    • Kālidāsa’s Mālavikāgnimitra
    • The Vākāṭaka–Gupta conflict
    • Finale

  • Epilogue

• 15 Royal Patronage and Religious Tolerance: The formative period of Gupta–Vākāṭaka culture

  • Udayagiri

    • Royal patronage

  • Mandhal

    • Padmapura
    • Muṇḍasvāmin

  • Rāmagiri

  • Mansar

  • Conclusion

• 16 Rāma’s Hill: Transgression and atonement on a Hill in the South and the inadequacy of substitutes

  • Preamble

  • The Śaivala Mountain of the Rāmāyaṇa

  • The Rāmagiri

    • The epigraphical evidence
    • Viṣṇupada
    • Narasiṃha

  • The Pilgrim’s Satchel

  • Conclusion

• 17 A New Interpretation of Rāmagiri Evidence

  • 1 Trivikrama: Word and Statue

    • Preamble
    • Maṅgalavāda: Kevala Narasim. ha Temple (KNT) Inscription verse 1
    • The KNT Inscription verse 21
    • The discovery of the KNT Inscription

  • 2 The Gupta–Vākāṭaka Relationship

    • Preamble
    • The Praśasti. KNT Inscription verses 2–19
    • Conjectured narrative structure of the KNT Inscription
    • The Daughter named Muṇḍa
    • The Gupta–Vākāṭaka relationship
    • The narration of the KNT Inscription

  • 3 The Trivikrama Temple

    • Preamble
    • The Trivikrama Temple
    • The iconography of the Trivikrama image
    • The pious works of Atibhāvatī
    • Conclusion

• 18 A Note on Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Stone Pillar: Inscription, verses 8–12 Commemorating the dead

  • Ajay Mitra Shastri

  • Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Inscription vv. 8–12

    • Concluding remarks on the inscription and the site of Bhitarī

  • Appendix

    • Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Stone Pillar Inscription vv. 8–12

• 19 The So-called: ‘Jaunpur Stone Inscription of Īśvaravarman’

  • Preamble

  • Introduction

  • The Jaunpur Stone Inscription

    • Text
    • Translation and annotation

  • Conclusion

• 20 The Temple of Maṇḍaleśvarasvāmin: The Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription of the time of Udayasena reconsidered

  • Introduction

    • The temple on Muṇḍeśvarī Hill
    • The date of the Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription

  • The Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription, Year 30

    • Transliteration
    • Emended, orthographic edition
    • Translation
    • Interpretation

  • Maṇḍaleśvara and the Skandapurāṇa

• 21 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India

  • Preamble

  • The funerary monument in Sanskrit literature

    • The aiḍūka of the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa
    • The eḍūka

  • The archaeology of the funerary monument

    • Memorials
    • Pratimāgṛhas
    • Memorial Stones
    • Aiḍūkas
      • Ahichhatra
      • Mansar

  • Funerary monuments with mortuary deposits

    • Sui Vihar

  • The archaeology of the śmaśanā

    • The Kumhāra Ṫekḍī in Ujjain
    • The eḍūka at Mansar
      • A funerary monument to Prabhāvatī Gupta?

  • Conclusion

  • Appendix

    • Aiḍūkarūpanirmāṇa Viṣṇudharmottara 3.84.1–15 (emended)

• 22 Puruṣamedha, Manasarapuruṣa, Vāstupuruṣa: The image of man in the sacrificial context

  • The image of man

  • Human sacrifice in India

    • Installation of the house or Vāstupratiṣṭha

  • Excursus upon the construction of the gnicayana altar

    • Preliminary conclusion

  • Archaeological evidence for the construction sacrifice

    • Kauśāmbī
    • Mansar

  • The Vāstupuruṣa

    • Kandhar
    • Curdi

  • Final remark

• 23 Rama Devotion in a Śaiva Holy Place: The case of Vārāṇasī

  • Introduction

  • Tulsīdās, Śiva, and the Name

    • The Agastyasaṃhitā

  • The Tradition of the saving mantra

    • The Kāśīkhaṇḍa

    • The Skandapurāṇa

      • Textual criticism

    • The saving mantra in the Skandapurāṇa

    • Avimukta

  • Conclusion

• 24 The Hindu Religion and War

  • Preamble

  • Aśoka and ancient warfare in India

    • The Arthaśāstra

  • The principle of ahiṃsā and the rules of war

    • Ahiṃsā
    • The Bhagavadgītā
    • The rules of war
    • The reports of Megasthenes and Ibn Baṭṭūṭa
    • The idea of a ‘just war’
    • The battle and the sacrifice

  • Hinduism and Islam

    • The conquest of northern India
    • The case of Vārāṇasī

  • Epilogue

Part III: Studies in Early Saivism

• 25 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms of Śiva Worship

  • Śiva Caturmukha

    • The myth of Tilottamā
    • Images of Śiva in his quadruple form
    • Epigraphic sources attesting the worship of Śiva

  • Early Sanskrit sources of liṅga worship

    • The Pāśupatasūtra and its commentary
    • The Mahābhārata
    • The Rāmāyaṇa

  • Concluding observations

    • The evidence of the Skandapurāṇa
    • Conclusions

  • Textual sources

• 26 At the Right Side of the Teacher: Imagination, imagery, and image in Vedic and Śaiva initiation

  • Introduction

  • The sitting position of teacher and pupil in the Vedic Upanayana ritual

    • The Śatapathabrāhmaṇa
    • The Gṛhyasūtras
    • The sitting position of the preceptor and his audience

  • The sitting position of guru and novice in arly Śaiva initiation ritual

    • Initiation in the Pāśupata tradition

  • The Dakṣiṇāmūrti

    • The definition of god’s figure of grace

  • The Dakṣiṇāmūrti and iconography

    • The development of a cult concept into an iconic image
    • A Dakṣiṇāmūrti on a crossbar found in Nagarī
      • Dakṣa’s sacrifice and his instruction in the Pāśupata vrata

• 27 Thanesar, the Pāśupata Order and the Skandapurāṇa: Studies in the Skandapurāṇa IX

  • The tradition of the four pupils of Lāguḍi

    • Lāguḍi
    • The Kuru lineage
    • Rāśi ascetics and ‘His own doctrine’

  • The Skandapurāna and the Pāśupata movement

    • Vārāṇasī
    • The Māhātmya of Sthāneśvara
    • Bāṇa’s relationship with Dadhīca, the founder of Sthāneśvara

  • The Skandapurāṇa reaches Nepal

    • Matrimonial alliances and the spread of culture

• 28 The Gospel of Kauṇḍinya: The descent of God in Gujarat and the practice of imitating God

  • Kauṇḍinya’s Pañcārthabhāṣya

    • Kuśika and the divine revelation
    • The power of the word

  • The Pāśupata praxis

    • The imitatio dei
    • The seeking of dishonour
    • Fools through the ages

  • Kauṇḍinya’s eschatology

  • Modern forms of Hindu devotion

  • Epilogue

• 29 Origin and Spread of the Pāśupata Movement: About Heracles, Lakulīśa and symbols of masculinity

  • Lāguḍi

    • Early images of a club bearing ascetic or teacher
    • The laguḍa a or club
    • The origin of the Pāśupata movement

  • The four disciples

    • Spread and ramification of the Pāśupata movement
    • The route along which the Pāśupata religion moved north

  • The Origin of a pan-Indian religion

• 30 The Quest for the Pāśupata Weapon: The gateway of the Mahādeva Temple at Madhyamikā (Nagarī) (Together with Peter Bisschop)

  • Introduction

  • The History of the Nagarī site

    • Inscriptions and coins
    • Archaeology

  • The Toraṇa of the Mahādeva Temple

    • The eastern face (E) of the gateway architrave
    • The western face(W)of the gateway architrave
    • The Pāśupata weapon

  • Concluding observations

• 31 Composition and Spread of the Skandapurāṇa An artist’s impression

• References and Index

• List of figures

• List of plates

• Bibliography

• Index

Table of Contents

part i Early Studies

1986–2000

1

An Indian Image of Man

An Inquiry into a change of perspective in the Hindu world-view . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

3

The Indian understanding of perfect man . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

The ‘Raw Material’

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5

The Sufis

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

The Yogis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

The Sants

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

13

The Bhaktas

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16

Epilogue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20

2

Die Indische Herausforderung

Hegels Beitrag zu einer europäischen kulturhistorischen Diskussion . . 23

Einleitung

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23

Die Jahre 1820–1825

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24

Neue Einsichten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Die Jahre 1826–1831

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30

Die Rezeption der Bhagavadgītā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Von Humboldts Bhagavadgītā Vorträge und Hegels Kritik

.

34

Schlussbetrachtung

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41

Schlussmoral

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44

3

Ayodhyā: le nom et le lieu

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

Ayodhyā conçue : le noṁ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

47

Ayodhyā retrouvée : le lieu

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

Illiers–Combray . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

v

vi

Contents

4

Ayodhyā: A Hindu Jerusalem

An investigation of ‘Holy War’ as a religious idea

in the light of communal unrest in India

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

Introduction

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

55

Holy war as a religious idea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Five conditions of ‘holy war’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

The Hindu religion and the social reality of war̥ . . . . . . .

60

The advent of Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

The segregation of the Hindu and Muslim communities . . . . . 64

The idea of the Rāma rājya

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

The Kingdom of Avadḥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

The emerging conflict around the Babri Masjid in Ayodhyā . 68

Ayodhyā: a Hindu Jerusaleṁ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

71

The fight for the Rāmajanmabhūmi/Babri Masjiḍ. . . . 73

Epilogue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

77

5

The Ramtek Inscriptions I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Introduction

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

79

The graffiti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

The two short Kevala–Narasiṁha Temple inscriptions

. . . . .

83

Kevala–Narasiṁha Temple Ramtek Inscription No. 1 . . . . 83

Kevala–Narasiṁha Temple Ramtek Inscription No. 2 . . . . 86

The Ramtek Stone Inscription of the time of Rāmacandra

. . .

88

Synopsis of the contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Editorial principles

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

94

Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Translation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

105

6

The Ramtek Inscriptions II

The Vākāṭaka inscription in the Kevala–Narasiṁha Temple

(Together with Harunaga Isaacson)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

113

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

Palaeography

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

118

Note on the edition and translation . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

Divergent readings of Jamkhedkar’s edition . . . . . . . . 125

Translation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

126

Annotation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

127

Contents

vii

Analysis and interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Vākāṭaka Gupta relations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

7

Throne and Temple

Political power and religious prestige in Vidarbha

. . . . . . . . .

149

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

The Vākāṭaka period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

The Vākāṭaka inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153

Policy of the Vākāṭaka kings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

The Yādava period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Ramtek Hill: Theatre of Plenipotentiaries . . . . . . . . . . . 163

8

Little Kr̥ṣṇa’s Play with the Moon

. . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

The literary evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

Baby Kr̥ṣṇa’s play with the moon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

The archaeological evidence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

170

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173

9

Some Methodological Considerations with Respect

to the Critical Edition of Puranic Literature

. . . . . .

175

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

The theory of ‘oral composition’

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

176

Composition-in-transmission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177

The critical edition of epic and puranic literature . . . . . . . 178

The critical edition of the Ayodhyāmāhātmya . . . . . . . . . 182

10 Pārvatī’s Svayaṁvara

Studies in the Skandapurāṇa I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185

The wedding of Śiva and Pārvatī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186

Śiva’s exclusion from the sacrifice . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187

Śiva as the cosmic chilḍ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

190

Pārvatī’s Svayaṁvara

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

191

The synoptic edition of the Svayaṁvara myth . . . . . . . . . 193

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198

Pārvatī’s Svayaṁvara. A Textual Reconstruction

. . . . . . .

201

11 Mokṣadharma 187 and 239–241 Reconsidered

(Together with Peter Bisschop)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

223

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

223

viii

Contents

Three themes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

224

The five elements

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

225

The intellectual apparatus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Sattva and kṣetraj˜na . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228

The ‘evolution theory’

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

229

The Mokṣadharma: a plurality of views . . . . . . . . . . . . 230

Appendix

Some parallels of Mokṣadharma 187 and 239–241 . . . . . . . 232

12 Observations on the History and Culture

of Dakṣiṇa Kosala (5th to 7th centuries ad) . . . . . . . . . . 235

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235

The Pāṇḍavas of Mekalā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

The family descending from Amara in Kosala . . . . . . . . . 240

The rulers of Śarabhapur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

The Pāṇḍuvaṁśa of Śrīpura

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

248

The date of the Pāṇḍuvaṁśa dynasty of Śrīpura

. . . . .

251

Tīvaradeva

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

253

Mahāśivagupta Bālārjuna

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

254

Tālā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256

The Jiṭhānī Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

13 Somaśarman, Somavaṁśa and Somasiddhānta

A Pāśupata tradition in seventh-century Dakṣiṇa Kosala

Studies in the Skandapurāṇa III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Harāya Namah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283

Śaiva cosmology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284

The Pāśupata movement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

The epigraphical evidence from Malhar . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

Malhar (Junvānī) Copperplates of Mahāśivagupta,

Year 57: ll. 8–23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290

Translation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

290

Interpretation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

291

Somaśarman and the Somasiddhānta . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

The evidence of the Skandapurāṇa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294

Somaśarman, Somavaṁśa and Somasiddhānta . . . . . . . . . 296

Contents

ix

part ii

Studies in the Early History and Culture of North India 14 A Theatre of Broken Dreams

Vidiśā in the days of Gupta hegemony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Prologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301

Act 1: Rāmagupta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302

The story of the Devīcandragupta

. . . . . . . . . . . .

303

Candragupta’s matrimonial policy and the triangle of power 305

Act 2 Govindagupta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

The testimony of Prabhākara

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

307

Act 3 Ghaṭotkacagupta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Kālidāsa’s Mālavikāgnimitra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311

The Vākāṭaka–Gupta conflict . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314

Finale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317

15 Royal Patronage and Religious Tolerance

The formative period of Gupta–Vākāṭaka culture . . . . . . . . . 319

Udayagiri

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

319

Royal patronage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322

Mandhal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323

Padmapura

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

324

Muṇḍasvāmin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326

Rāmagiri

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

329

Mansar̥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

331

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

16 Rāma’s Hill

Transgression and atonement on a Hill in the South

and the inadequacy of substitutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

335

The Śaivala Mountain of the Rāmāyaṇa

. . . . . . . . . . .

336

The Rāmagiri

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

337

The epigraphical evidence

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

340

Viṣṇupada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

Narasiṁha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343

The Pilgrim’s Satchel

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

346

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349

x

Contents

17 A New Interpretation of Rāmagiri Evidence . . . . . . . . 351

1 Trivikrama: Word and Statue

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

351

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

351

Maṅgalavāda: Kevala Narasiṁha Temple (KNT)

Inscription verse 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352

The KNT Inscription verse 21

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

354

The discovery of the KNT Inscription

. . . . . . . . . .

355

2 The Gupta–Vākāṭaka Relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

357

The Praśasti. KNT Inscription verses 2–19 . . . . . . . . 357

Conjectured narrative structure of the KNT Inscription . . 360

The Daughter named Muṇḍā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361

The Gupta–Vākāṭaka relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . 362

The narration of the KNT Inscription

. . . . . . . . . .

362

3 The Trivikrama Temple

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

365

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

365

The Trivikrama Temple

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

365

The iconography of the Trivikrama image . . . . . . . . . 368

The pious works of Atibhāvatī . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

371

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371

18 A Note on Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Stone Pillar

Inscription, verses 8–12

Commemorating the dead . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Ajay Mitra Shastri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Inscription vv. 8–12

. . . . . . . . . .

374

Concluding remarks on the inscription and the site

of Bhitarī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

377

Appendix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

379

Skandagupta’s Bhitarī Stone Pillar Inscription

vv. 8–12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379

19 The So-called ‘Jaunpur Stone Inscription

of ¯

Iśvaravarman’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

381

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381

The Jaunpur Stone Inscription . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384

Translation and annotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388

Contents

xi

20 The Temple of Maṇḍaleśvarasvāmin

The Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription of the time of

Udayasena reconsidered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391

The temple on Muṇḍeśvarī Hill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

The date of the Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription . . . . . . . . . . 394

The Muṇḍeśvarī Inscription, Year 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Transliteration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396

Emended, orthographic edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397

Translation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

398

Interpretation

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

399

Maṇḍaleśvara and the Skandapurāṇa . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400

21 Monuments to the Dead in Ancient North India . . . . . . 405

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

405

The funerary monument in Sanskrit literature . . . . . . . . . 405

The aiḍ¯

*uka * of the Viṣṇudharmottarapurāṇa . . . . . . . . 406

The eḍ¯

*uka *. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407

The archaeology of the funerary monument . . . . . . . . . . 411

Memorials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Pratimāgr̥has . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415

Memorial Stones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 417

Aiḍūkas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Ahichhatra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 419

Mansar̥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

421

Funerary monuments with mortuary deposits . . . . . . . 424

Sui Vihar̥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

426

The archaeology of the ́

smá

sāna

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

429

The Kumhāra T

. ekḍī in Ujjain

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

430

The eḍ¯

*uka * at Mansar̥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

432

A funerary monument to Prabhāvatī Guptā?

. . . . . 438

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 439

Appendix

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

441

Aiḍūkarūpanirmāṇa

Viṣṇudharmottara 3.84.1–15 (emended) . . . . . . . . . . 441

xii

Contents

22 Puruṣamedha, Manasarapuruṣa, Vāstupuruṣa

The image of man in the sacrificial context

. . . . . . . . . . . .

443

The image of man

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

443

Human sacrifice in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444

Installation of the house or Vāstupratiṣṭha . . . . . . . . 446

Excursus upon the construction of the Agnicayana altar . . . . 448

Preliminary conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 452

Archaeological evidence for the construction sacrifice

. . . . .

453

Kauśāmbī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 453

Mansar̥ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

455

The Vāstupuruṣa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459

Kandhar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460

Curdi

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

461

Final remark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

23 Rāma Devotion in a Śaiva Holy Place

The case of Vārāṇasī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

Tulsīdās, Śiva, and the Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464

The Agastyasaṁhitā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465

The Tradition of the saving mantra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

The Kāśīkhaṇḍa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467

The Skandapurāṇa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469

Textual criticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470

The saving mantra in the Skandapurāṇa

. . . . . . . . .

470

Avimukta

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

471

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473

24 The Hindu Religion and War . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

Preamble

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

475

Aśoka and ancient warfare in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475

The Arthaśāstra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 476

The principle of *ahiṁsā * and the rules of war̥ . . . . . . . .

477

Ahiṁsā

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

477

The Bhagavadgītā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 477

The rules of war . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479

The reports of Megasthenes and Ibn Baṭṭūṭa . . . . . . . 479

The idea of a ‘just war’

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

481

Contents

xiii

The battle and the sacrifice

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

481

Hinduism and Islaṁ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

482

The conquest of northern India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 482

The case of Vārāṇasī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 485

part iii

Studies in Early Saivism

25 Sources for Reconstructing Ancient Forms

of Śiva Worship

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

489

Śiva Caturmukha

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

489

The myth of Tilottamā . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489

Images of Śiva in his quadruple form . . . . . . . . . . . 490

Epigraphic sources attesting the worship of Śiva

. . . . .

493

Early Sanskrit sources of liṅga worship . . . . . . . . . . . . 496

The Pāśupatasūtra and its commentary

. . . . . . . . .

496

The Mahābhārata

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

496

The Rāmāyaṇa

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

498

Concluding observations

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

498

The evidence of the Skandapurāṇa . . . . . . . . . . . . 498

Conclusions

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

499

Textual sources

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

500

26 At the Right Side of the Teacher

Imagination, imagery, and image in Vedic and Śaiva initiation . . . . 505

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 505

The sitting position of teacher and pupil in the Vedic Upanayana ritual

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

506

The Śatapathabrāhmaṇa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506

The Gr̥hyasūtras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508

The sitting position of the preceptor and his audience . . . 511

The sitting position of guru and novice in early Śaiva initiation ritual

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

512

Initiation in the Pāśupata tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . 513

xiv

Contents

The Dakṣiṇāmūrti . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 515

The definition of god’s figure of grace . . . . . . . . . . . 518

The Dakṣiṇāmūrti and iconography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 519

The development of a cult concept into an iconic image . . 521

A Dakṣiṇāmūrti on a crossbar found in Nagarī . . . . . . 522

Dakṣa’s sacrifice and his instruction in the

Pāśupata *vrata *. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 524

27 Thanesar, the Pāśupata Order and the Skandapurāṇa

Studies in the Skandapurāṇa IX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 527

The tradition of the four pupils of Lāguḍi . . . . . . . . . . . 527

Lāguḍi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 529

The Kuru lineage

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

530

Rāśi ascetics and ‘His own doctrine’

. . . . . . . . . . .

532

The Skandapurāna and the Pāśupata movement

. . . . . . .

533

Vārāṇasī . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533

The Māhātmya of Sthāneśvara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534

Bāṇa’s relationship with Dadhīca, the founder

of Sthāneśvara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 535

The Skandapurāṇa reaches Nepal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 537

Matrimonial alliances and the spread of culture . . . . . . 539

28 The Gospel of Kauṇḍinya

The descent of God in Gujarat and the practice of

imitating Goḍ. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

541

Kauṇḍinya’s Pa˜ncārthabhāṣya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

Kuśika and the divine revelation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541

The power of the word . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 543

The Pāśupata praxis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

The *imitatio dei *. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 544

The seeking of dishonour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 545

Fools through the ages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 546

Kauṇḍinya’s eschatology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 549

Modern forms of Hindu devotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 550

Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 551

Contents

xv

29 Origin and Spread of the Pāśupata Movement

About Heracles, Lakulīśa and symbols of masculinity . . . . . . . . 553

Lāguḍi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553

Early images of a club bearing ascetic or teacher̥ . . . .

554

The *laguḍa * or club . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 555

The origin of the Pāśupata movement

. . . . . . . . . .

558

The four disciples

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

559

Spread and ramification of the Pāśupata movement . . . . 561

The route along which the Pāśupata religion moved north . 563

The Origin of a pan-Indian religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 563

30 The Quest for the Pāśupata Weapon

The gateway of the Mahādeva Temple at Madhyamikā (Nagarī)

(Together with Peter Bisschop)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

567

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 567

The History of the Nagarī site

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

569

Inscriptions and coins

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

569

Archaeology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 571

The Toraṇa of the Mahādeva Temple . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

The eastern face (E) of the gateway architrave

. . . . . .

575

The western face(W)of the gateway architrave

. . . . . .

587

The Pāśupata weapon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 594

Concluding observations

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

597

31 Composition and Spread of the Skandapurāṇa

An artist’s impression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

References and Index

List of figures

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

613

List of plates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 613

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 618

Index

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

669

Preface

I descended to the field of classical indology from the lofty heights of western philosophy. As a graduate student I had spent four years studying two giants of European thought, Aristotle and Hegel, whose respectful student I still consider myself to be.

But circumstances not defined by philosophy led me to the discovery of the world outside Europe. Indian philosophy was for me an obvious anchor as was the comparative study of religions. As my knowledge of Sanskrit increased and my understanding of the depth and beauty of Indian culture widened, I jumped on the opportunity offered to me to study the history of one of India’s most sacred places, Ayodhyā, which became the subject of my PhD

research. I had landed on holy ground.

The studies presented here take their start from 1986, the year that my Ayodhyā

book was published. Thirty-one articles are collected in the present volume; they span a period of thirty years, during which I worked mainly at the Institute of Indian Studies of the University of Groningeṇ They are the backbone of my research and naturally follow the intellectual development that informed my academic career̥

The reader may notice a gradual shift away from theoretical, say philosophical subjects to a historical, cultural orientation in which two mainstreams come together, strands that I found entwined in the holy ground that was my first object of research: the Sanskrit textual tradition, including epigraphy, and the material culture as expressed in works of religious art and iconography. It was only while working on this volume that I gradually discovered that the history of holy places has been a leitmotiv throughout my scholarly endeavours. And this has been so because I have been and still am fascinated by the potential for understanding, if text and art are studied in close combination in the actual field where they meet: two types of sources that release their maximal informative power when they are bound to one and the same locality. After Ayodhyā my attention focused on the culture of Vidarbha, in particular during the two centuries of Vākāṭaka rule. My second monograph, The Vākāṭakas,

which appeared in 1997, thus carried the subtitle: An essay in Hindu Iconology.

Hegel’s place was taken by Panofsky.

Apart from this general intellectual direction, there have been two major challenges which, more than anything, have enriched my research and left their imprints on this volume. One is the Kevala–Narasiṁha Temple Inscription

found on the Rāmagiri (Ramtek), the other the discovery of the ‘original’

Skandapurāṇa, found in ancient Nepalese manuscripts in the National Archives (Kathmandu).

xvii

xviii

Preface

Our edition of the first, the KNT inscription, has gone through two subsequent revisions. The first edition (Bakker & Isaacson 1993) is given here as study No. 6, in which later revisions and conjectures are added to the apparatus and footnotes, including conjectures published here for the first time. The second revised edition is contained in Bakker 1997, and the third, partial edition (Bakker 2010c), is our study No. 17.1. The importance of this inscription for the history of the Gupta–Vākāṭaka age cannot easily be overrated. Evaluation

of its content has informed studies Nos. 7, 14, 15, and 17.2–3 of this volume.

The second discovery has resulted in the critical edition of the Skandapurāṇa,

of which so far five volumes have appeared (SP I, II A, II B, III, IV), and at which a varying team of scholars has been working since the 1990s of the last century. This work has prompted a series of articles by several authors with the common subtitle Studies in the Skandapurāṇa. Of these, three have been

selected for the present volume, studies Nos. 10, 13, and 27. The SP project has also resulted in a third monograph, The World of the Skandapurāṇa (Bakker

2014).

In selecting these thirty-one studies out of a total of eighty-five articles I applied—in addition to considerations of quality—the general, though flexible rule not to include those articles that may be considered preparatory studies, that is studies whose final form has been integrated in a (later) monograph, edited volume, or introduction to our edition of the Skandapurāṇa. This en-

tails that some subjects that have occupied me a great deal may appear un-derexposed in the present volume, such as, for instance, the critical edition of Sanskrit texts, 1 the history of Vārāṇasī,2 or the archaeology of the Vākāṭaka

sites, Ramtek and Mansar̥ 3 With one exception, No. 30 (Bakker & Bisschop 2016), I have selected articles that were written during my work at the University of Groningen, that is until 2013. Study No. 17 combines and integrates three articles that were published separately. 4 Two essays are published for the first time in the present volume: No. 16, an English translation of an article originally published in Italian (2010), and No. 31, my valedictory lecture (2013), which concludes this book. The articles selected for this volume are marked by an * in the reference list; the latter contains only works referred to in this volume and does not comprise a complete bibliography.

The critical reader may ask what aim is served by another edition of articles that have already been published. The question contains the answer̥ The present volume not only collects and reproduces articles that have been published, but it edits them agaiṇ I have taken the liberty of revising the original publications, in some cases rather thoroughly, and I have brought their contents in agreement with my other writings. In so doing I have tried, to the best of 1 See e.g. the Prolegomena to our Skandapurāṇa edition, Volume 1 (SP I).

2 See e.g. the Introduction of Skandapurāṇa Volume 2 (SP II A).

3 Dealt with in e.g. Bakker 1997; Bakker 2004d; Bakker 2008.

4 Bakker 2010c, 2012, 2013b.

Preface

xix

my ability, to put them in accordance with the latest insights. In brief, the aim has been to make my published work more consistent and up-to-date as far as possible. This does not imply that I have rewritten earlier work. My intention has been to strike a balance between leaving the original article intact wherever possible and reformulating and emending the existing publication when needed.

When my views have changed in such a way that rewriting would affect the original too much, I have presented my changed position in footnotes.

The revision described above has a few important consequences. All articles have been typeset anew. Preliminary Abstracts, Acknowledgements, and Keywords have been left ouṭ The separate bibliographies have been assembled in one list of references at the end of the book. The text of the studies has been newly divided according to headings and subheadings which appear in the Table of Contents. In order to serve the aim of welding a collection of studies into a real unity, I have added hundreds of cross-references. Illustrations have been inserted whenever I found them useful and the volume is concluded by an Index.

The book is divided into three parts:

I Early Studies (1986–2000).

II Studies in the Early History and Culture of North India.

III Studies in Early Saivism. As most divisons, this arrangement is relatively arbitrary. It precludes a strict chronological order of the original publications and allows a thematic ordering only to some extenṭ This compromise between chronology and themes means to facilitate a ready access of the reader to the subject of his/her interest, whereas the sequence of studies opens the possibility to continue the development of a theme as it has evolved in my thinking. Where a thematic sequence was not possible it is hoped that cross-references may guide the reader further̥ Despite selection and revision, a certain amount of redundancy could not be avoided.

This volume has been composed as part of my work as curator at the British Museum (2014–2019) for the project: Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State (ERC Project no. 609823). I am grateful for all the help I have received from my colleagues in this project and the museum staff.

Special thanks are due to Dr Michael Willis who as ‘Principal Investigator’

has initiated and guided this projecṭ

I am grateful to Dr Dory Heilijgers

for proofreading and making the Index. I also thank Prof Harunaga Isaacson (Hamburg) and Prof Peter Bisschop (Leiden) for permitting the inclusion and reissue of articles that we wrote together (Nos. 6, 11, and 30).

Hans Bakker

British Museum, 1 May 2019