Śaiva Rites of expiation

Rites of expiation and reparation (prāyaścitta) may not seem central to the history of the Mantramārga, but they provide a fascinating angle from which to view the evolution of this broad religious tradition. Instead of focussing on the evolution and philosophical defence of Śaiva doctrines, or on the examination of ritual practices and of theories developed to justify and shore up such practices, this study puts the spotlight instead on social dimensions of the religion. This book contains a first edition and translation of a South Indian compendium of Śaiva expiation rituals compiled by Trilocanaśiva, a twelfth-century theologian celebrated for his Siddhāntasārāvalī, a metrical treatise on the Śaivasiddhānta that is still traditionally studied in the Tamil-speaking South today. Trilocana does not reveal the sources from which he quotes, many of which are lost to us, but an earlier Northern treatise on the same theme from Malwa by a certain Hṛdayaśiva consists only in large labeled quotations, typically whole chapters, from those sources. A Nepalese palm-leaf manuscript kept in Cambridge that is dated to 1157 AD may be the earliest surviving codex to transmit Hṛdayaśiva’s text and we have included a complete transcription of that manuscript as an appendix. A combined quarter-verse-index helps readers to navigate both Trilocana’s and Hṛdayaśiva’s works. Our introduction attempts to trace the social developments within the Śaivasiddhānta that give context to the evolution of Śaiva reparatory rites.

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shanti@efeo-pondicherry.org