A Priest's Guide for the Great Festival Aghorasiva's Mahotsavavidhi (Hardcover, New)

The Mahotsavavidhi, a twelfth-century Sanskrit text, provides detailed guidelines for a Saiva temple priest in performing a nine-day "great festival" for the god Siva. The author, Aghorasiva, is one of the most esteemed and influential authors in the Saiva Siddhanta school, and his lengthy work on ritual procedures, Kriyakramadyotika, (of which the Mahotsavavidhi is a part), is by all accounts the Agama work most employed by modern temple priests and pious Saivas in their practice of worship. Richard Davis's translation of this important text is the first translation into a European language of any medieval work on temple festivals. Because the text was intended for an expert audience of working twelfth-century priests, Aghorasiva employs a highly technical idiom. For that reason, Davis annotates his translation extensively with explanations and expansions drawn from other Agama works. There have been numerous studies of temple festivals and processions based on ethnographic observations and on recent historical data, but the historical study of this dramatic religious practice during earlier periods has relied on speculation. Davis's groundbreaking volume will provide a new foundation for the study of the history of South Indian temple festivals as a cultural practice.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	South Asia Research
Release date:	February 2010
First published:	December 2009
Authors:	Richard H. Davis (Professor of Religion and Asian Studies)
Dimensions:	244 x 163 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	208
Edition:	New
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-537852-8
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > World history > 500 to 1500 Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General > History of religion Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism Books > History > World history > 500 to 1500 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism Books > Religion & Spirituality > General > History of religion
LSN:	0-19-537852-0
Barcode:	9780195378528

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