Pondicherry
India
FRANCAIS | ENGLISH


Responsable: Dominic Goodall

École française d'Extrême-Orient
16-19 rue Dumas
605 001 Pondicherry, India

Tel: +91 413 233 45 39
Fax: +91 413 233 08 86 goodalldominic@gmail.com
administration@efeo-pondicherry.org


PRESENTATION
LIBRARY
Appaya Dīkṣita handing over some of his works to his disciple-brother’s grandson Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita, Minister to Madurai Tirumalai Nāyakkar
Appaya Dīkṣita handing over some of his works to his disciple-brother’s grandson Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita, Minister to Madurai Tirumalai Nāyakkar
Lecture by Elaine Fisher on Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita's Saubhāgya-candrātapa, a Śrīvidyā Paddhati
08 APRIL 11
“Śrīvidyā for the Early Modern Age: Some Salient Features of Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita's Saubhāgyacandrātapa, a Śrīvidyā Paddhati”

Nīlakaṇṭha Dīkṣita, poet, intellectual, and royal minister of seventeenth-century Madurai, is best remembered for his first-rate Sanskrit literary compositions, including epic poems (mahākāvyas), hymns (stotras), and satires.  This lecture introduces another little-known work of the literary celebrity, a ritual manual (paddhati) of the Śrīvidyā Śākta tradition entitled the Saubhāgyacandrātapa.  This rare and intriguing composition provides a wealth of information about the history and ritual practice of a Śrīvidyā lineage in which a number of prominent intellectual figures in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century South India seem to have participated.  In this talk, Elaine Fisher will present an overview of the available manuscript evidence, the structure and contents of the work, sources cited, and some noteworthy features of Nīlakaṇṭha’s presentation of his material that allow us to recover details of the social context in which the Saubhāgyacandrātapa was composed.

The lecture will take place at 4.30 pm on Friday 8th April 2011 in the Library Hall, 19 Dumas Street.


 lectures