Features of the Wedding Ritual of Paippalāda Atharvavedins

Lunch Lecture by IIAS fellow Dr Shilpa Sumant (Deccan College, Pune, India).

The lecture

The followers of the Paippalāda school of the Atharvaveda residing in the Eastern Indian States of Orissa and Jharkhand use priestly manuals such as the Karamapañjikā (KP) and the Karmasamuccaya for conducting the rituals. The KP, composed by an otherwise unknown Śrīdhara in the 16th CE. elaborately explains the rituals in the tradition that originated from the text of its mantra-collection, the Paippalādasaṁhitā and adapted to the changed religious situation with the influence of Hinduism. Currently, I am preparing a critical edition of this text with Prof. Arlo Griffiths. This edition planned in three volumes is based on six palm-leaf manuscripts written in Oriya script each containing approximately 175 folios. The first volume containing general paradigms of ritual is ready for publication and now the second volume explaining seven important rites in the tradition is in progress. Present talk will focus on the features of the wedding ritual as explained in the text of the KP and as actually performed in recent times in this tradition. A Paippalādin wedding consisting of five main nuptial rites has a series of events commonly seen in any Indian marriage carried out in accordance with other Vedic schools. It is interesting to see these common acts which form the authentic core of any Hindu wedding ceremony. Also there are some peculiar episodes containing Atharvavedic rites and those which are unique to the Paippalāda school. I will demonstrate the features of ritual acts with the help of some photographs taken during my field trip.

The speaker

Dr Shilpa Sumant is and Assistant Professor of Sanskrit in the Department of Sanskrit and Lexicography, Deccan College, Pune, India. She works as a sub-editor in the project of the Encyclopeadic Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles carried out by this Department. 

Her special field of interest is Atharvavedic ritualistic literature. AS a Gonda fellow (May-October 2015) at the International Institute of Asian Studies, she is currently working on the critical edition of the Karmapañjikā, a ritual manual of Paippalāda Atharvavedins with Prof. Arlo Griffiths. She is also associated with the project of new edition and translation of Kauśikasūtra with Prof. Shrikant Bahulkar. 

Dr Sumant has participated in number of national and international conferences. She is invited speaker in many Indian universities and is associated with several institutes in various capacities.                                 

Registration

Lunch will be provided, but registration is required. Please use the registration form below.

About IIAS Lunch Lectures

Every month, an IIAS researcher or visiting scholar will present his or her work-in-progress in an informal setting to colleagues and other interested attendees. IIAS organises these lunch lectures to give the research community the opportunity to freely discuss ongoing research and exchange thoughts and ideas.