Suksmagama Volume III

This third volume of the Suksmagama critical edition contains descriptions of a variety of rites and cer-monies concerning Siva and the Goddess and for the welfare of the society. Many of them are in form of installations of a Sivalinga, of the image of the Goddess and of the provisional temple. Others include festival 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 in-stallation 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 Prakash-an, Cuddalore. About the authors S. Sambandhasivacarya has been working in the French Institute of Pondicherry since 1969 in the project of critically editing the Saivagama-s. 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 contri-butions to the first critical editions of Agama-s such as the Matangaparamesvara, Sardhatrisatikalottara, Rau-ravottara, Ajita and Diptagama. Bruno Dagens (Professor emeritus, Université Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associ-ated researcher at the IFP), has translated Mayamata and authored several studies about Indian tradition in South and Southeast Asia. Marie-Luce Barazer-Billoret (Senior lecturer, Univer-sité Paris-III Sorbonne nouvelle, member of UMR 7528 and associated researcher at the IFP), is 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. Ganesan 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 Saiva Teachers of the six-teenth century. Nigamajnana I and his disciple Nigama-jnana 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 He also has published a first critical edition of the Varunapaddhati, an ancient Saiva text, along with the unpublished commentary of Nigamajnana II.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 Saivasiddhanta. Jean-Michel Creisméas has been awarded Ph.D in 2015 by the Université Paris III – Sorbonne nouvelle for his thesis “The Yoga of Matangaparamesvaratantra in the light of the commentary of Bhatta Ramakantha”.