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Some forthcoming e-texts

Input, but not online yet (an incomplete list):

  1. अद्भूतधर्मपर्याय
  2. अभिसमयमञ्जरी
  3. अमृतकणिका आर्यमञ्जुश्रीनामसङ्गीतिटीका
  4. आर्यसत्य
  5. कक्षपुट
  6. कप्फिणाभ्युदय
  7. कुण्डलकेशीप्रभात
  8. गुह्यवज्रविलासिनीसाधन
  9. गुह्यावली
  10. ज्ञानसारसमुच्चयनिबन्ध
  11. तर्कसोपान
  12. धर्मपदव्याख्यान
  13. धर्मोत्तरप्रदीप
  14. नन्दगौतमीय
  15. नलगिरिदमन
  16. नानासिद्धोपदेश
  17. नालन्दादहन
  18. निष्किञ्चनयशोधर
  19. नृत्यप्रसूति
  20. न्यायबिन्दुटीका
  21. पञ्चकन्यातरङ्गिणी
  22. पञ्चकाराभिसम्बोधि
  23. पञ्चविंशतिसाहस्रिका प्रज्ञापारमिता
  24. पञ्चाकार
  25. पद्मचिन्तामणि नाम नागसेनचरीत
  26. मध्यमार्थसङ्ग्रह
  27. मध्यान्तविभागसूत्रभाष्यटीका
  28. महामायातन्त्र
  29. महामायासाधनोपायिका
  30. वीरकन्यावाहिनी
  31. व्यक्तपादटीका
  32. सलामाविनाश प्रतिवर्णरूपनृत्यनाटिका
  33. साधनमाला
  34. सिद्धैकवीरमहातन्त्र
  35. सुधाभोजन
  36. स्वाधिष्ठानप्रभेद
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Sakuma, ‘Lokeśvara in Indian Tantric Buddhism’ (2011)

佐久間 留理子 『インド密教の観自在研究』 山喜房佛書林 10.5.2011 A5 17,000円

Sakuma, Ruriko. Indo Mikkyō no Kanjizai Kenkyū [*Studies on Avalokiteśvara in Indian Tantric Buddhism]. Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, 2011. 620 pp. ISBN 978-4-7963-0015-5.

Contents (目次)
第１部

研究目的、及び、研究対象の成立背景
　１）研究目的と先行研究
　２）成就法の成立背景
　３）観自在の展開

第１章　文献学的研究
　１）研究目的と先行研究
　２）『サーダナ．マーラー』のサンスクリット写本
　３）バッタチャルヤ校訂本とサンスクリット写本と関係

第２章　図像学的研究
　１）観自在の種類
　２）聖観自在のタイプ
　３）密教的聖観自在のタイプ

第３章　宗教実践方法の研究
　１）成就法の構造
　２）成就法における二種の映像
　３）身体技法としての成就法
結論

第２部

翻訳研究
略号
1 ローカナータ（世門主）成就法
2 カサルパナ（空行）世自在成就法
3 ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）成就法
4 シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在成就法
5 シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在成就法
6 ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在成就法
7 ハーラーハラ世自在成就法
8 パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）成就法
9 ハリハリハリヴァーハナ生起成就法
10 トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)世自在成就法、及び、トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ（三界制御)の教えのブグマ世自在成就法
11 ラクタ（赤）世自在成就法
12 ローケーシュヴァラ（世自在）敬愛儀軌
13 マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網次第）観自在
14 供養を伴うマーシャムカの陀羅尼
15 スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
16 プレータサンタルピタ世自在成就法
17 スカーヴァティー(極楽）世自在成就法

作例表
（Ａ）聖観自在のタイプ
(A.1) ローカナータ（世門主)
(A.2) カサルパナ(空行)世自在
(A.3) ヴァジュラダルマ（金剛法）

（Ｂ）密教的観自在のタイプ
(B.1) シャダクシャリー（六字）世自在
(B.2) シンハナーダ（獅子吼）世自在
(B.3) ニーラカンタ（青頸）聖観自在
(B.4) ハーラーハラ世自在
(B.5) パドマナルッテーシュヴァラ（蓮華舞自在）
(B.6) ハリハリハリヴァーハナ世自在
(B.7) トラーイロークヤヴァシャンカラ　(三界制御)世自在
(B.8) ラクタ（赤）世自在
(B.9) マーヤージャーラクラマ（幻化網）観自在
(B.10) スガティサンダルシャナ（善趣示現）世自在
(B.11) プレータサンタルピタ世自在
(B.12) スカーヴァティー（極楽）世自在

参考文献
あとがき
索引

Nīlakaṇṭha (Sakuma 2011:150‒151)
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Robert Beer

‘Visionary Realms: An Interview with Robert Beer’. 2011. [PDF at Wisdom books or online (more pictures).]

Nice to see these informed musings on twentieth- and twenty-first-century Newar art by Robert Beer, its most accomplished Western exponent, ranging from the influence of Botticelli’s Nascita di Venere upon it to thoughts on some of its current leading lights.

There is also a plug for Robert Beer’s joint venture with Wisdom books, the commercial site tibetanart.com, offering stuff at the higher-quality end of the market.

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Bühnemann, ‘The Buddha’s Journey to Lumbinī’ (2011/06/11)

Gudrun Bühnemann. ‘The Buddha’s (Return) Journey to Lumbinī (lumbinīyātrā).’ Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens vol. 54 (in press; to appear in November 2011).

Prof. Bühnemann’s upcoming presentation of selected findings in Nepal was announced today on sanskritbuddhism:

Date: June 11, 2011
Time: 3 pm
Venue: Kholcha Pokhary, Manimarga, Chakupat 22 (NIEM Library Building), Lalitpur

According to Newar Buddhists, Śākyamuni Buddha visited his birthplace Lumbinī after his enlightenment. Depictions of this journey became popular in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Nepal. They show the Buddha riding standing up on a snake while being attended by Hindu deities in service to him. The scene, known as the lumbinīyātrā, is represented in numerous paintings and in wood and metal work, and is also described in texts. This strand of the Buddha legend is specific to Newar Buddhism and not attested in Indian biographic or hagiographic accounts of the Buddha’s life. In this paper I will trace the history of the lumbinīyātrā theme by examining descriptions in texts and artistic representations. I will then discuss elements of the yātrā which are also found independently in other contexts. In conclusion, I will offer some thoughts on the significance of the lumbinīyātrā theme.

Nrityamandalavihara-Lumbiniyatrapaubha
Gautamavajra Vajrācārya, Lumbinīyātrā paubhā (Nṛtyamaṇḍala-Mahāvihāra, Portland), NS 1125
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Shakya, ‘Mañjuśrī in the Kathmandu Valley’ (2011)

Miroj Shakya. ‘Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī in the Buddhist Literature of the Kathmandu Valley (With Special Reference to the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa)’. PhD dissertation, University of the West, Spring 2011. 261 pp.

From the Abstract

Mañjuśrī is portrayed as a founder of the Kathmandu Valley in the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa, where he is shown playing a vital role in initiating the Nepalese Buddhist tradition. […] My study will focus on these legends of the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa associated with Mañjuśrī.

Includes studies of short non-tantric texts related to Mañjuśrī, and texts and translations of various versions of the third chapter (on Mañjuśrī’s fabled draining of the Valley’s pleistocene lake) of the Svayambhūpurāṇa literature.

Mañjuśrī Shrine, Svayaṃbhū Stūpa (p.260)
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Birkenholtz, ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition’ (2010)

Jessica Lynn Vantine Birkenholtz. ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition: Translating Self, Place and Identity in Hindu Nepal’. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago, 2010. 337 pp. UMI Number: 3408505.

From the Abstract

This dissertation presents an alternate social and cultural history of Nepal through the lens of a textual-historical study of the Svasthānī Vrata Kathā (SVK). A popular Nepali Hindu textual tradition, the SVK has an unbroken history that spans five hundred years and three languages (Sanskrit, Newar, and Nepali). Beginning in the sixteenth century, the text expanded from a handwritten eight-folio palm-leaf local legend on the origin of the Svasthānī vrat, or ritual vow, into a Purāṇic sourcebook of thirty-one chapters in over four hundred printed pages. The SVK’s medieval-modern historical span, the diversity of forms of its textual (re)production, and its sustained uniform core narrative provide a lens through which both immediate shifts and gradual transformations in Nepal’s literary, linguistic, social, religious, and political history can be viewed and interpreted.


Continue reading “Birkenholtz, ‘The Svasthānī Vrata Kathā Tradition’ (2010)”

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Allen, ‘Girls as goddesses in secular Nepal’ (23/05/2011)

Presentation

Michael Allen. ‘The worship of young virgin girls as goddesses in the secular state of Nepal’. Guest lecture, 23 May 2011, 13:00-15:00, Nordic Institute of Asian Studies (Copenhagen).

Abstract

In this lecture I intend to focus on some of the current debates in Nepal concerning the worship of young virgin girls as living forms of the goddess. At the heart of these debates is the issue of just what weight should be given to religious beliefs, practices and morals, in this case both Hindu and Buddhist, in what is now constitutionally a federal democratic republic formally committed to the propagation of predominantly secular ideals. Yet, prior to the success of the Maoist-led revolution in 2006, Nepal had been a Hindu monarchy of an orthodox kind in which the divine King and the virgin goddess were the twin pillars that together gave legitimacy to the state. My lecture concludes with some brief insights into just how both the goddess and the state survive today without their king – albeit somewhat precariously so.

Michael Allen is 
Emeritus Professor at the Department of Anthropology, University of Sydney.

Venue

NIAS, Leifsgade 33, 3rd floor, 2300 Copenhagen S.

Chanira Vajracharya, (now former) Lalitpur kumari. Photo © I.S., 2010.
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Hunt, ‘Considerations for Devanagari Typography’ (2008)

Paul D. Hunt. ‘Language and region specific considerations for Devanagari typography. Case studies in Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, & Nepali’. M.A. Thesis, University of Reading, September 2008. [PDF]

Reading, England, produces more than just atheist comedians; the University of Reading also awards respected higher degrees in Typeface Design. Hunt’s M.A. thesis, set in elegant Grandia, explores a few of the varied functions that Nāgarī type may be called on perform. It’s potentially useful reading for those working on Sanskrit texts who have dreamed of a better Unicode typeface, and who seek the typographical vocabulary to articulate exactly what they are looking for.

Characteristics of Devanagari script (Hunt 2008, Fig.10 p.14)

The current situation is far from perfect, of course. Of the Unicode Nāgarī faces out there at the moment, I could only recommend two or three, at most, for serious philological typesetting. It is frustrating that adequate faces are not even available to buy, for the most part.
Continue reading “Hunt, ‘Considerations for Devanagari Typography’ (2008)”

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Liland, ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra’ (2009)

Fredrik Liland. ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The history, diffusion, and influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist text’. M.A. thesis, Universitetet i Oslo, 2009. [official site/PDF] Supervised by Jens E. Braarvig.

From the Abstract

The thesis is concerned with the 7th Century Mahāyāna Buddhist text Bodhicaryāvatāra (BCA) and its significance as a vehicle for cultural exchange. We trace its history in India and beyond, from its proposed author Śāntideva’s hand, its contemporary influence in India, and its impact in the lands—Nepal, Tibet, China, Mongolia, and beyond—and languages—Sanskrit, Newari, Tibetan, Chinese, Mongolian, and others—where it travelled. The nature of its influence has varied with the times and places where it has found itself, but in all instances it received a prominent place of canonical status, and was mostly revered.
[…]
The BCA has received quite a lot of attention in modern scholarship since the first publication of a critical Sanskrit edition by Minayev in 1889. A large number of new manuscripts of the text have surfaced since then, and a separate chapter is dedicated to philological concerns and the dire need for a new and updated version that will take into account also the new knowledge we now have of the text[‘]s history. A mostly unnoticed commentary, the Bodhicaryāvatāra-ṭippaṇi, also receives i[t]s long overdue attention in this chapter.

Liland’s thesis presents a long over due bibliographically-oriented update to scholarship on the Bodhicaryāvatāra. Two other scholars are said to have been recently working on a critical edition of the text: Daniel Stender and Richard Mahoney. I do not know whether either are proceeding.

One stand-out feature of Liland’s thesis is the attention it pays to Nepalese sources and translations in the Newar (“Newari”) language, which, as regular readers know, are routinely neglected in Buddhist studies, notwithstanding the fact that they originate in direct contact with the Sanskrit original in a South Asian Buddhist setting. Despite this unusual but welcome development, I can point to at least three areas of further improvement:

  1. “Ratna Bahādur Vajrācārya (1893-1955), of whom not much is known” (p.92): in fact, at least four (mostly short) biographies of this outstanding figure are in print, including a dedicated and independently published treatment by Manish Shakya.
  2. No mention of (the many) translations into South Asian vernaculars; here’s one in Nepali. Not all such translations were done from Sanskrit, but some have been.
  3. No reference to manuscripts in private or recently documented collections.

Continue reading “Liland, ‘The transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra’ (2009)”