The Hindu : National : Classical Tamil seminar to throw light on inscriptions of South India

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Classical Tamil seminar to throw light on inscriptions of South India

Staff Reporter

Eminent scholars from across the world are expected to take part

Inscriptions of Gupta, Chalukya, Pallava, Pandya and Chola dynasties to be studied
Literary background of eulogies carved on walls of Chola temples will be discussed

— Photo: T.Singaravelou

TAKING KEEN INTEREST: Participants going through texts at the Sanskrit workshop held recently at the EFEO in Puducherry.

PUDUCHERRY: The French School of Asian Studies (EFEO) will be organising a classical Tamil summer seminar, “Engraving the King’s fame: Sanskrit Prasastis and Tamil Meykkirttis” between August 6 and 20.

Tradition

According to Dominic Goodall, who heads the Puducherry centre of the EFEO, the seminar, which is being put together by Charlotte Schmid and Eva Wilden will be devoted to the tradition of royal eulogy in the inscriptions of southern India.

During the workshop several inscriptions belonging to the Gupta, Chalukya, Pallava, Pandya and Chola dynasties will be studied, both in Sanskrit and in Tamil, as well as a hitherto unknown C8th inscription in Sanskrit from Cambodia (shortly to be published by participants in the EFEO’s project Corpus des inscriptions khmères).

Mr. Goodall said the workshop would help throw light on the development and literary background of the eulogies carved on the walls of so many Chola temples throughout the Tamil-speaking south.

Professor Leslie Orr (Concordia University), widely known for her studies on the role of women as reflected in the Tamil epigraphic corpus, will also participate.

On August 10, Carnatic musician Bombay Jayashri will perform at the EFEO.

Only recently, EFEO organised the Fourth Intensive International Sanskrit Summer Retreat, in which Sanskrit scholars read and studied various texts together.

Three separate daily reading sessions were dedicated to philosophy, poetry and Purana/Tantra.

Philosophy

In texts relating to philosophy, the opening of Jayanta’s Nyayamanjari (Kei Kataoka’s edition) and a part of Ramakantha’s tenth-century commentary on the Paramoksanirasakarika (edition now being prepared by S. L. P. Anjaneya Sarma, Dominic Goodall, and Alex Watson) were read.

The marriage of Shiva and Parvati in the Haracaritacintamani of Jayadratha (edition now being prepared by Alex Watson) and passages on Shaiva yoga in the Svacchandatantra and the Nisvasatattvasamhita (edition being prepared by Alexis Sanderson, Dominic Goodall, were read under Tantric/Puranic literature.

Twenty-nine participants came from Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Poland, United Kingdom and the United States.

Concert

Sri Trichur Ramachandran gave a concert of Sanskrit songs of Saint Thyagaraja and Muthuswamy Dikshitar on July 27.

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