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PUDUCHERRY, INDIA, December 27, 2006: The Ecole Francaise de Extreme–Orient (EFEO), French School of Asian Studies in Puducherry (formerly, Pondicherry), will be organizing an international workshop on “Early Saivism: The Testimony of the Nisvasatattvasamhita” from January 2 to 13. According to Dominic Goodall, head of the center in Puducherry, the workshop will mainly focus on the Nisvasatattvasamhita, one of the earliest Agamas of Saivism that has survived. “The Nisvasatattvasamhita, a fundamental Tantra of the Saiva Siddhanta, is an enormous, unpublished text of great antiquity that contains information about the early history of the Saiva religion. The work is in many respects very different from the other ancient Tantras of the Saiva Siddhanta and is, therefore, quite difficult to interpret,” said Professor Dominic Goodall.

Nivasatattvasamhita may be the earliest scripture of Tantric Saivism and it is a source of major importance both for t he early history of Tantrism and for more archaic forms of Saivism followed by Pasupata groups. It is mentioned in 10th century inscriptions in Cambodia. “It is a compendium of Saiva mantras and Saiva thought in general and it survives in an early ninth century Nepali manuscript. The text has evidence of Saivism in the whole of the Indian sub-continent at that time,” he added.

Scholars from Japan, England, Europe and the U. S. will discuss this agama in depth. Discussions focusing on finalizing the text of three of the five major sections on the Tantra will be held. These sections, called ’sutras’, appear to be semi-independent Tantras in their own right: they teach different mantra systems and the longest of them, Guhyasutra, appears to be referred to as an independent work in Cambodian inscriptions. Lectures on different aspects of the text or some aspects of early Tantric religion will be given. Possible subjects include magic rituals; peculiarities of early Tantric language, Tantric ontology; early Tantric cosmography, developments in Tantric worship, Pasupata religion, relations between Buddhist and Saiva Tantra.

On the inaugural day of the seminar, a concert by Carnatic vocalist T.M. Krishna will be organized. The concert will be held from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on January 2 in the library hall of the EFEO, as 19 Dumas Street. Nagai R. Sriram on the violin, Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam on the mridangam and Tiruvarur R. Krishnamurthi on the kanjira will accompany him.

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LONDON, Dec 15: An illegal shipment of six ancient Indian religious statues valued between 25,000 and 30,000 pounds, which were seized by the UK customs in August last year at Heathrow airport, were handed over on Thursday to the Indian High Commission here for their journey back to India.

The seized consignment, weighing a total of 172kg, contained a seventh century figure of a mother goddess (possibly Indrani), two tenth century figures of Buddha, a tenth century figure of a Hindu goddess (probably Durga), an eleventh century figure of the Hindu and Vedic god Agni, and an eleventh century figure of a temple-goer.

The consignment was initially detained on suspicion that it contained smuggled antiquities. Once this was confirmed, the consignment was officially seized and left at the British Museum on deposit.

Dr Michael Willis, Curator of the Ancient Indian and Himalayan Collections at the British Museum examined the statues. He confirmed that the statues came from the Bihar region of India and dated to between the seventh and eleventh centuries AD.

The Indian Deputy High Commissioner, Ranjan Mathai, along with the Culture Minister and Director of the Nehru Centre, Monika Kapil Mohta, received the statues on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India at the British Museum where they have been held in trust.

The Nehru Centre, the cultural wing of the Indian High Commission in London will be sending the statues back to India. Dr Michael Willis said: “The British Museum has worked with HM Revenue & Customs for over 35 years on investigations into illegally imported antiquities. This is a vital relationship in the fight against the illicit trade in antiquities.”

Financial Secretary to the Treasury John Healey MP said: “I am pleased to announce the return of these historical statues to the Indian people. The government fully recognises the importance of historical artefacts to our shared cultural heritage and takes its role in enforcing international agreements and prohibitions designed to preserve our historic environment very seriously. “The international trade in illicit cultural artefacts is a significant problem and is increasingly being linked to other forms of organised crime. Where ancient sites are plundered for short-term gain, this results both in the loss of heritage items to indigenous peoples and irreparable damage to archaeological sites.”
By M. Ziauddin

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KENDRAPADA, INDIA, December 11, 2006: Overruling caste-bound tradition and years of discrimination, hundreds of Dalits will enter a Jagannath temple in Kendrapada on December 20 after the high court last week gave a ruling in their favor. The upper caste community had barred Dalits from entering the 18th century shrine dedicated to Lord Jagannath in Keradagarh village, 28 miles from Kendrapada. But a division bench last week ruled that all Hindus had the right to enter any temple, irrespective of their caste. Though the Dalits had not asked for permission to organize a meeting at Keredagada on December 20, the administration would cooperate with them in entering the temple at any time and ill take legal action against anybody opposing the move, said district collector Kashinath Sahoo. Dalits comprise 400 of the village’s population of 1,400 people. In Chauriberhampur village, on the outskirts of Kendrapada town, Dalits built their own Shiva temple in April this year after being denied entry into the local temple. They appointed a Brahmin as priest at their new temple and allow people from upper castes to enter and worship.

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CHENNAI, INDIA, December 8, 2006: The total number of manuscripts in the country was at least 10 times the initial estimate of five million, said Neeraja Gopi from the National Mission for Manuscripts at the Government Museum on Monday morning. Around one million should be available online soon. Placards with a step-by-step guide to the preservation of metal manuscripts, adorned the centenary exhibition hall for the national workshop on the topic that began the same day. Among the valuable ancient metal manuscripts on display was one of seven copper plates strung together on a ring with two Nandi bulls on it, recording the grant of lands to a Siva temple by Tappunatta Mumma Nayanar during the reign of Kulothunga Chola in 1078 A.D. in Grantha and Tamil script.

The five-day workshop is being attended by experts, curators and those interested in the conservation of manuscripts from across the country. The museum established a laboratory in 1930 to study the preservation of metal icons, said V. Jeyaraj, Co-ordinator, Government Museum Manuscript Conservation Centre. R. Kannan, Special Commissioner & Commissioner of Museums, said that failing to preserve and decipher manuscripts could lead to the loss of valuable knowledge in the classical languages of Sanskrit and Tamil, especially relating to the medical and physical sciences. Manuscripts of Siddha medicine, for instance, documented the medicinal use of mercury. The National Manuscript Mission was initiated in 2003 as a five-year project to survey, document, preserve and digitise manuscripts in the country’s public and private repositories, said Ms. Gopi. It has succeeded in documenting at least a fourth of available manuscripts on a variety of media including metal, cloth, ivory, papyrus and sanchipat through manuscript resource and conservation centers across the country. The Mission has also initiated manuscriptology courses in universities and research into the indigenous and traditional processes of preservation of manuscripts.

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HIMACHAL PRADESH, INDIA, November 19, 2006: The State Government of Himachal Pradesh wants to promote Sanskrit studies by using computers to enhance the learning process. This is the message delivered by Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh when he addressed students and teachers at the Government Sanskrit College in Sundernagar, Mandi. Singh also said that the Central Government Sanskrit Vidyapeeth is coming up in the Pragpur area of Kangra district. He explained that old manuscripts found in the state were in ancient Sanskrit, needing knowledge of the ancient Indian language from 5000 years ago. Singh also stated that students need to learn Sanskrit besides other languages for an update on their linguistic heritage.