Suksmagama Volume III Chapters 54 to 85

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This third volume of the Suksmagama critical edition contains descriptions of a variety of rites and ceremonies concerning Siva and the Goddess and for the welfare of the society. Many of them are in the form of installations of a Sivalinga, of the image of the Goddess and of the provisional temple. Others include festivals such as the collecting of pearls from the sea, the chariot festival, the offering of a golden crown to the Linga, the installation of the temple kitchen, tank, well and of the monastery. The performance of atonement rites in order to make up for omissions in various rites, the installation of the Naga and that of the altars inside the temple for bali-offering are also treated in detail.

This volume has been prepared and published with the financial assistance from Sri Sambamurthy Sivacharyar Foundation, Chennai and Sadyojat Samskrita Prakashan, Cuddalore.

S. Sarnbandhaliviairya has been working in the French Institute of Pondicherry since 1969 in the project of critically editing the 8aivagamas. Coming from a family of temple priests, well-versed in the domain of temple rituals and with a long experience in reading various ancient scripts, he has made significant contributions to the first critical editions of Agamas such as the Matarigaparames'vara, Sardhatrisatikalottara, Rauravottara, Ajita and Diptagama.

Bruno Dagens (Professor emeritus, Universite Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associated researcher at the IFP), has translated the Mayamata and authored several studies about Indian tradition in South and Southeast Asia.

Marie-Luce Barazer-Billoret (Senior lecturer, Universite Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associated researcher at the IFP), is a specialist of Southern Saivism; she has authored several articles and co-authored the translation of the Rauravagama, the critical edition of the Diptagama and a book on Siva.

T. Gunman has been working as a Senior Researcher in the French Institute of Pondicherry since 1985. Under his current research project "A Comprehensive History of Saivasiddhanta in Tamilnadu", he has published a monograph entitled Two gaiva Teachers of the sixteenth century. Nigamajnana I and his disciple Nigamajnana II. He also has published a first critical edition of the Varunapaddhati, an ancient Saiva text, along with the unpublished commentary of Nigamajnana II. He has authored several articles on Saivism in general and on the Saivasiddhanta.

Jean-Michel Creismeas has been the awarded his Ph.D in 2015 by the Universite Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle for his thesis "The Yoga of the Matangaparameivaratantra in the light of the commentary of Bhatta Rimakantha".

The present third volume of the critically edited text of the Suksmagama follows the earlier volumes of the same text. It contains the chapters 54 to 85 which are preceded by a detailed introduction, summary of chapters in English and the same (patalarthasamgraha) in Sanskrit. The introduction discusses about the sources utilised for this volume, the arrangement of patala-s, as well as some of their special features. Interesting points regarding close similarities, sometimes even borrowings, from other Saivagama-s such as the Suprabhedagama, Karanagama, are also discussed in the introduction.

As was the case in the previous two volumes, the final draft of this volume is a fruit of many joint reading sessions of all the chapters of the text undertaken by the editors both at Pondicherry and at Paris during the period between 2012 and 2015.

We express our sincere thanks to the authorities of the Sri Sambamurthy Sivacharyar Foundation, Chennai, The Sadyojat Samskrita Prakashan, Cuddalore and the Ambalsoft Infotech put. Ltd., Chennai for their great interest and support for the publication of this volume. We convey our sincere gratitude to Dr. T. S. Shanmugam Sivacharyar, the founder president of Sri Sambamurthy Sivacharyar Foundation and to Sri. Sambandha Sivacharyar, the founder of the Sadyojat Samskrita Prakashan for their generous financial support for printing this volume of the Suksmagama. We also express our sincere thanks to the successive Directors of the French Institute of Pondicherry, Mr. Pierre Grard and Mr. Frederic Landy for providing the required support for the smooth functioning of the project.

**Contents and Sample Pages**