Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient


 

 


TIMETABLE
Announcement of a Workshop organised by the centre of the EFEO
in Pondicherry, from Monday 6th to Friday 17th of August 2007

Engraving the King’s Fame: Sanskrit Pra’sastis and Tamil Meykkiirttis

Here is our proposal for August readings; we draw your attention on two points:

  1. this remains a kind of draft, as it depends how much time is required to read some of the long texts like the Aihole pra’sasti, the two Early Pandya copper-plates (Veelviku.ti and Ta.lavaaypuram) or the meykkiirtti of Kulottunga Ist and the eulogy of his general Naralokaviran: the vagueness of certain indications is intended.
  2. the recent work of Sheldon I. Pollock (The Language of the Men in the World of Men, Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India) will certainly be quoted quite often during the discussions: in particular to have read the chapter 3 (The World Conquest and Regime of the Cosmopolitan Style) might be useful.

Time-table of the days:
There will be two main sessions a day. One in the morning and one in the afternoon; each of them will last approximately 3 hours with a tea break in the middle:

Morning session: 9-12 am.
Afternoon: 2-5pm.

The lectures will be given in the afternoon if it is possible, or at 5h30 pm.

  • Sanskrit Texts
    The first three days are devoted to Sanskrit texts to respect chronological order and in honour of the Sanskritists coming from the previous workshop, the Famous Fourth International Intensive Sanskrit Summer Retreat (FFIISSR).

Monday 6th
Morning: The Allahabad Pra’sasti: Cédric FERRIER.
Afternoon: kept free for a lecture/ to finish the text if we didn’t have enough time in the morning. We might also start the Aihole Pra’sasti in case we have enough time.

Tuesday 7th
The Aihole Pra’sasti: Nibedita ROUT /Anna SLACZKA (the whole day).

Wednesday 8th
Morning: The Trichy Inscription: Emmanuel FRANCIS.
Afternoon: a Cambodian Inscription, the Inscription K 1236 (from the Prasat Kambuul Taa Naan): Dominic GOODALL.

  • Bilingual texts, Sanskrit and Tamil, the Early Pandya
    Then we need three days to honour the Early Pandya plates:

Thursday 9th
The Vee.lviku.ti Plates: Pr. G. VIJAYAVENUGOPAL, R. SATHYANARAYANAN, Valérie GILLET (and Sylvain BROCQUET, with whom Valérie has worked but who doesn’t come).

Friday 10th
Ta.lavaaypuram Plates of Paraantaka-Viiranaaraya.na_n: Charlotte SCHMID, Vincenzo VERGIANI and Eva WILDEN.

and
Monday 13th (on the beginning of the second week):

The Morning session of Thursday will be devoted to the Sanskrit part of the Vee.lviku.ti Plates, then we will proceed to their Tamil section; the same will be done for the  Ta.lavaaypuram plates, beginning on Friday or Monday, depending on the time we will need to read the Vee.lviku.ti plates.

  • The Coo_la Session
    During two and a half day, or three (depending on the time, etc.) we will read texts related to the Coo_la dynasty.

Tuesday 14th
Morning: Raajaraaja I Meykkiirtti: G. VIJAYAVENUGOPAL, the short version (Mutalaam Iraacaraaca_n Meykkiirtti (= 2.1.1 [24])
Morning (after tea-break) and afternoon: Kuloottu"nka I Meykkiirtti (Kuloottu"nka_n I Meykkiirtti (=2.8.3 [43]): Nikolay GORDIYCHUK?/ G. VIJAYAVENUGOPAL.

Wednesday 15th
Naralookaviiran inscription : Whitney COX; this inscription offers a Sanskrit pra’sasti and a Tamil meykkiirtti.

Thursday 16th
Morning: Raajendra II Meykkiirtti : T. RAJESHWARI (Iraacaatiraaca_n II Meykkiirtti, 2.12.1 [55] and 2.12.2 [56]).
Afternoon: we keep it free for a lecture or to start with the Late Pandyas (or to finish the programme in case we are late).

  • The Late Pandyas

Friday 17th
Morning and afternoon: Meykkiirtti of Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I: Leslie ORR.
That means that we may end this programme with Jatavarman Sundara Pandya, or we may have time for: one more text of the late Pandya, the Meykkiirtti of Maravarman Sundara Pandya I; or for the Meykkiirtti of the Baa.na King Makataipperumaa.l, at Tiruvannamalai. However for the moment, G. VIJAYAVENUGOPAL is the only one who has worked on these texts (with Leslie) and as he has already prepared so many inscriptions, it might be tiring for him to present one more.
Everybody might be tired too…

For the moment it is difficult to finalise the programme of the lectures as our Tami_l guests don’t always know which day and time will suit them. The Pr. Subbarayalu has offered to give an interesting lecture on the eulogies composed in honour of groups of persons, like guilds, and we thank him in advance for having chosen this interesting topic. The Pallava team (Emmanuel Francis, Valérie Gillet and Charlotte Schmid) might give something on the programme of the Kailaasanaatha Temple, which appears to be a kind of royal eulogy in stone.