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Research in Vienna, Austria

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Ute Huesken • October 26, 2002 


Dear all,

yes, in Vienna impressive and excellent work on Pancaratra and also on
Vishishtadvaita
is done. The homepage of the institute is to be found at:

http://www.oeaw.ac.at/ias/

The last publication is titled "Studies in Hinduism III, Pancaratra and
Visistadvaita vedanta", ed. by Gerhard Oberhammer and Marion Rastelli. The
articles published there are on Parameshvarasamhita, Paramasamhita, Vatsya
Varadaguru etc. Three of the five articles are in English.

> Prof.Oberhammer was closely associated with the late Dr
> Varadachary who was an authority on the Agamas.

I am very sorry to hear that Prof. Varadacary passed away! His excellent
book
on South Indian Agamas is unsurpassed!

> Dr  Varadachary also mentions that pAncharatA deals with rites of passage
such
> as antima kramams, shathAbhishekam etc. This is generally covered by the
> grhya sutras and the dharma sAstras. He mentions that pAncharatrA is to be
> treated as highly elevated as a smriti and that it's validity is
considered
> as a shruthi within the Sri Vaishnava sampradAyam.

Some of the Pancaratrasamhitas do in fact enumerate the Samskaras (e.g.
Sanatkumarasamhita).

> Dr Varadachary's book, "Pancaratragama" which was recently published by
TTD
> is an excellent introduction. However, I have not been able to find
english
> books on the Vaikhanasa agamam.

There is one excellent book on the Vaikhanasa Agamas in French by Prof.
Gerard Colas from Paris. I can give you the details if you want. Prof. Colas has,
however, also published
many articles on the Vaikhanasa Agamas in English. Details available with
me. The Late Rompicarla Parthasarathi Bhattacarya, Vaikhanasagama Pandit in
Tirumalai, also published some articles in English (and Sanskrit and Telugu) in
the Journal of the Oriental Institute of the Venkateshwara University in
Tirupati.

> The only vaikhAnasa sutram I am aware of is the one that belongs to the
> Yajur Vedam. Are both the sutram and the agamam of the same origin? Any
info
> on the Vaikhanasa agamam is highly appreciated.

There is only one Vaikhanasasutra. It belongs to the Taittiriya branch of
the
black Yajurveda. Vikhanas, the founder of the Vaikhanasa-branch, is said to
be
the teacher of four Rishis (Kashyapa, Atri, Marici and Bhrgu), who wrote
down what Vikhanas taught them - the outcome are the Vaikhanasa Agamas. Many of
these Agamas have recently been republished by the TTD, some in Devenagari
script, some in Telugu script. 

> [ To my knowledge, Pancaratra is not considered as Sruti or Veda
>  within the tradition, since it is an authored text. -- Moderator ]

Still many of the Pancaratra Agamas refer to an original but lost so-called
"Ekayanasakha" and therefore in a sense es equated with the Veda.

I totally agree that Pancaratra and Vishishtatvaita should not be confused.
Usually I refer to the relation between these two systems as "Pancaratra can
be called the ritual substratum of the Vishishtadvata (whose representatives
are the Shrivaishnavas)".

Are there other modes of characterizing this relation? 


Best regards
ute

Dr. Ute Huesken
Lehmkuhle 31
37130 Gleichen
Germany
phone: +49-5508-923686


-- 
Dr. Ute Huesken
Lehmkuhle 31
37130 Gleichen
Germany

phone: 0049-5508-923686

e-mail:
ute_huesken@hotmail.com
ute.huesken@gmx.de

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