Monthly Archives: July 2008

Miscellaneous points of note in the skanda-sadabhAva

Posted on July 31, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

kaumAra dIkSha: The SS is one of the few surviving texts giving an account of the kaumAra dIkSha. In its general pattern it follows the dIkSha-s seen in the pA~ncharAtra and saiddhAntika systems. In a pure spot a maNTapa is … Continue reading →

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skanda-sadbhAva:observations on iconography

Posted on July 30, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Chapter 11 of the skanda-sadbhAva describes the making of images of skanda. 8 substances are recommended for making images: suvarNaM rajataM tAmraM maNayaH kaMsa eva cha | mR^ittikA dAru pAShaNa ity aShaTau yonaH smR^itAH || i.e.: gold, silver, copper, gemstone, … Continue reading →

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skanda sadbhAva: A distinctive kaumAra tantra?

Posted on July 27, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Even though there are kumAra shrines ranking amongst the richest of the Indian temples, kaumAra worship can be generally characterized as being in the decline, especially in terms of the ancient forms. In South India the majority of priests at … Continue reading →

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puShpavAn prajAvan bhava

Posted on July 27, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

We wandered like a kApAlin on the path to avimukta, kapAla in our hand, the dUtI in our embrace. We reached the golAshmanvati in the mada of soma, there we picked the first four oShadhi-s that lay in out path.

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trika’s parA-devI in saundaryalaharI

Posted on July 26, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R had asked me if trika’s devI is encoded in the saundaryalaharI. Just as how the kubjikA-mata’s yAmala is encoded in the SL, likewise the anuttara lineage’s trikA devI is also encoded in the saundaryalaharI. The verse is SL15 sharaj-jyotsnA … Continue reading →

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A dramiDa prashasti concerning shAstA

Posted on July 25, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

One topic of some interest in the evolution of the mantra-shAstra is the emergence of the shAstA tantra-s the most voluminous of which is the kulAla-tantra. We had earlier shown how shAstA has emerged from an earlier equestrian deity revanta … Continue reading →

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The yuddha resumes

Posted on July 24, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

dhumaketu: The amAtya and sachiva were also attacked but the spasha-s say that they stood firm. The agent of the duShTa-s lured us for a direct battle. This happened after the below events. The sachiva and amAtya were unsure if … Continue reading →

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Strange memories of German poems

Posted on July 23, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

R was pretty excited at having procured the kapphiNa-abhyudaya for only $5 and stated her plan to work through it over the next several months as a part of her program to stave of mental aging and keep her astronomical … Continue reading →

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tigma-shR^i~Ngin

Posted on July 21, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

yas tigma-shR^iN^go vR^iShabho na bhIma ekaH kR^iShTIsh-chyAvayati pra vishvAH | yaH shashvato adAshuSho gayasya prayantAsi suShvitarAya vedaH || RV 7.19.1 In our youth we were reading an ACK comic on kumbhakarNa, which had a memorable cover of the great rakShas … Continue reading →

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atharva-vedIya nakShatra kalpa sUktaM

Posted on July 20, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Below are the nakShatreShTi mantra-s of the atharvanic tradition. We use them as the yAjya verses with the ones from the shaunaka saMhitA kANDa 19 forming the invocatory verses. They are not found in the extant paippalAda text and appear … Continue reading →

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Mantriform incantations in other cultures

Posted on July 20, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

A part of the study of the development of mantra-shAstra is a comparative analysis with similar productions in other cultures. I fear such comparisons at least in the preliminary stages of study are entirely befuddled by subjective comparisons. Several investigative … Continue reading →

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Throwing my axe into the sea I made land arise :-)

Posted on July 20, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI
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shmashAnAbdhi

Posted on July 19, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

We sought to experience the might of the great aghora, the god of the gods, the great bhairava. kubjIshAna is coupled with the great devI samayA, who as kAmeshvarI manifests as the ShoDashI vidyA and who as vakreshvarI shines in … Continue reading →

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Disclaimers and all that

Posted on July 19, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

I never knew I would end up writing something like this on my own pages. In many ways I will actually be repeating what I have written in different forms several here. But the steep build up in angry inputs … Continue reading →

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The cracker box yakShiNI

Posted on July 17, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

It was 1989, when we were still young. kR^iShNa shUdra noticed the violent sphigshiras approaching us and panicked. He believed that we might have hatched a plot that dashed his chances of snaring the eye-freezing kamala-nayanA champakanAsA. Hence, he sought … Continue reading →

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shabdamegha

Posted on July 16, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Wordle, the word cloud generator of Jonathan Feinberg offers a delectable means of generating some art as well as capturing the essence of certain texts in a pictures. It uses the visually pleasing Gentium font to render Unicode. It can … Continue reading →

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The mysterious conflict between bhR^igu-s and gotama-s according to the tradition of the Urdhva-srotas

Posted on July 14, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

In the R^igveda the gotama-s repeatedly and respectfully mention the bhR^igu-s as the founders of the fire rite, which is consonant with their position at the head of the shrauta gotra-pravara lists. For example: dadhuSh TvA bhR^igavo mAnuSheShvA rayiM na … Continue reading →

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A sign from the deva

Posted on July 13, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

We felt we received a sign from the lord of ShaShThI, accompanied by revatI and other hosts. It happened while exploring: Z[n+1]=Fn1(Z[n+1]); Z[n+1]=Z[n]-((P1*Z[n]^4 -P2*Z[n]+P1)/(4*P1*Z[n]^3)); Fn1=ArcSin or Sinh; P1=1+i; P2=0 The ShaTkoNa yantra manifested in the middle of the spanda.

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j~nAnavajra

Posted on July 13, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

j~nAnavajra (Mongolian: oender-gegen zanabazar), descendent of Chingiz Kha’Khan via Tusheet Khan and Kandjamts Khatun was undoubtedly one of the greatest figures in Central Asia after his illustrious ancestors. j~nAnavajra saw himself as the merger of two lineages of the tradition … Continue reading →

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The Urdhvasrotas and medical tradition

Posted on July 10, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

The jaina mantravAdins in the karnATa country use a medical text termed the hitopadesha. Its author is shrIkaNTha-shambhu or shrIkaNTha-shiva. This work is a rather distinctive one (at least to me) when compared with other standard tomes of Hindu medicine. … Continue reading →

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The train of thoughts to the horned gods

Posted on July 10, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Our aim was to finish the next installment on the potential medical activities of the saiddhAntika-s but it did not happen (ArambhashUra indeed). Some thoughts of from a long past time settled upon us like the deluding mada of surA, … Continue reading →

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A personal discursion on studying tAntrika history

Posted on July 7, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

For some reason I was prompted to put down these useless words after an exchange with ekanetra. Many years ago, early in my youth the muni and I had created a series of historical impromptu dramas in which we had … Continue reading →

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The experience of the seriema

Posted on July 5, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

I had recently taken my clansmen to the zoo where I came face to face with the seriema. It was a tremendous experience. For years we had only heard of this bird – the last representative of a great radiation … Continue reading →

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A molecular phylogeny of birds

Posted on July 5, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

While much progress has been made with respect to the paleontological studies on the origin of birds within Dinosauria, comparable progress was lacking with respect to understanding the relationships between extant birds (neornithes). We had discussed this briefly in an … Continue reading →

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The pakShi sarga in Hindu tradition

Posted on July 4, 2008 by mAnasa-taraMgiNI

Hindu tradition posits that all living organisms have descended from a common ancestor. The common ancestor of all birds is said to be tAmrA. Her sisters like kadru or surasA are the ancestors of the reptiles. The origin of birds … Continue reading →

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