2014 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
An Early and Unpublished Text on Sun-worship
| Project/Area Number |
25370057
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2013-04-01 – 2017-03-31
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| Keywords | Tantricism / Sun worship / Manuscriptology / Philology / History of religion / Pre-modern Nepal |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
I prepared a critical edition of four more chapters (from Chapter 5 to Chapter 8) of the Saurasamhita in this academic year, the second year of my research project. A critical edition of first four chapters was already prepared in the first year. Like in the previous academic year, I improved on my preliminary edition of these chapters prepared earlier on the basis of the oldest 10th-century mannuscript and collated all other available manuscripts/transcripts.
In August 2014 I took part in the Ninth International Intensive Sanskrit Summer Retreat organized in Hokkaido, and exchanged ideas with a group of young scholars working on Hindu and Buddhist texts. The group included professors and research students from Japan, UK, Germany, Hungary, USA, and China.
In March 2015 I visited National Archives, Kathmandu, to read directly from actual manuscripts those portions of the Saurasamhita which I was unable to read from microfilms and digital images. I also visited two temples of the sun god and other astral divinities in the Kathmandu Valley and one beyond. I also visited the Kathmandu Office of the Heidelberg Academy's research Project, "Documents of the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal." As I had a fruitful discussion with its director Prof. Axel Michaels and his team there, I look forward to collaborating with them in future. While there I also trained Mr. Prabhakar Upadhyay, a Master’s level student from Tribhuvan University to decipher and transcribe early Nepalese manuscripts and he has begun to work with me on editions of unpublished Sanskrit texts.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I am happy that I am able to prepare a critical edition of four more chapters of the Saurasamhita as I had planned. One of my collaborators, Prof. Sthaneshwar Timalsina of San Diego State University, visited Kyoto University for three weeks (thanks to partial funding from Kyoto University Foundation) and, among many things he did here, he collaborated with me in my project.
In Kathmandu I found new collaborators, and established relations with people working on the documents of the history of religion of pre-modern Nepal. I could not, however, visit Europe as I had planned to consult another collaborator friend Prof. Dominic Goodall of Ecole francaise d’Extreme Orient, because of his unavailability. I started to work on my introduction to the edited text in the form of a history of sun worship in Indian sub-continent. I made some progress in it but was not able to make a breakthrough as I had wished. Nevertheless, I am happy with my overall progress. And more, the result of my previous JSPS project (23820023) is being printed now as a book in “Collection Indologie” as No. 129 under the title "Early Tantric Vaisnavism: Three Newly Discovered Works of the Pancaratra."
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
In the current academic year, I will prepare a critical edition of the rest of the chapters of the text. This year I will also prepare an English summary of the whole text and work on a preliminary draft of my introduction to the edited text. I will also gather and study text parallels, collate them against my text, and present them in appendices. I will stay in Kathmandu for a month, going to different places of Sun-worship in the valley, and try to match my text with the tradition and iconographic representation of solar and astral deities there. In Kathmandu, I will also collaborate with local researchers in basic philological work for future editions of similar rare texts from old manuscripts.
In the second half of the academic year I am having sabbatical leave from Kyoto University, and wish to focus more on my research work during this period. During the Sabbatical leave, for almost four months I will be stationed in Vienna collaborating with Prof. Klaus-Dieter Mathes in a different project, but while there, I also have a plan to visit my collaborator friend Prof. Dominic Goodall in Paris and also other European scholars working on the texts of ancient Indian religions for fruitful discussions over my problems. I will also take part in two workshops being held in Leiden and Heidelberg both focusing on Indian religions and their texts.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Because of unavailability of my collaborator friend Prof. Dominic Goodall, I could not make a research trip to Europe.
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| Expenditure Plan for Carryover Budget |
I plan to use it for the same propose: to make a research either to Europe or to the States to consult my collaborators, participate in a workshop, and visit a library.
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