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The Samaveda contains the earliest tradition of music from India. It presents largely Rigvedic textual material in a form arranged for singing in the solemn Srauta ritual. This edition is based on manuscripts collected from all over India and Europe. B. R. Sharma presents the accented text, its Padapatha, and commentaries.

The more than two dozen Rai languages in eastern Nepal, which make up the larger part of the Kiranti language family, are linguistically highly varied. This volume for the first time brings together different variants of myths from various Rai languages, presenting them with linguistic glossings in interlinear translations.

Discusses the Bhaiksuki manuscript of the Candralamkara ("Ornament of the Moon"), a commentary of the twelfth century based on the Candravyakarana, Candragomin's seminal Buddhist grammar of Sanskrit (fifth century). This title describes the discovery of the Bhaiksuki script and of available written sources.

"The Law Code of Visnu" ("Vaisnava-dharmasastra") is one of the of the ancient Indian legal texts composed around the seventh century ce in Kashmir. This title contains a critical edition of the Sanskrit text based on fifteen manuscripts, an annotated English translation, and an introduction evaluating its textual history.

This book interprets the ethnography of the Mru and Khumi, Tibeto-Burmese speaking horticulturalists who practice swidden agriculture in the hills straddling Bangladesh, India, and Burma. Their material and spiritual cultures are described in detail here, from dwellings to religious rituals. Nearly a hundred color photographs provide illustration.

This is a critical edition of the Kramapatha and Jatapatha forms of recitational permutations of sections of the Saunakiya Atharvaveda available in six rare manuscripts found in Pune, India. As these variations are no longer available in the surviving oral tradition in India, the texts provide rare access.

This volume is a bilingual collection of shaman oral texts from the Bhuji Valley of Western Nepal, in the original Nepali and with line-by-line English translation. Accompanying the book is a DVD of audio recordings of the texts, supplementary texts, videos of shaman performances, and additional video and photographic documentation.

This book examines the revolution in Sanskrit poetics initiated by the ninth-century Kashmiri Anandavardhana. Anandavardhana replaced the formalist aesthetic of earlier poeticians with one stressing the unifunctionality of literary texts, arguing that all components of a work should subserve the communication of a single emotional mood (rasa).

This study and edition of Bcom Idan ral gri's (1227-1305) Bstan pa rgyas pa rgyan gyi nyi 'od was likely composed in the late 13th century. It is a systematic list of Sutras, Tantras, Shastras, and related genres translated primarily from Sanskrit and other Indic languages, holding a vital place in the history of Buddhist literature.

This edition of Rig Veda presents the text (in Roman characters) in its original metrical arrangement and closely approximates the pronunciation of the time of its composition. Restorations deviating from the received Samhita text are printed in italics, so the traditional text can easily be reconstituted without reference to other editions.

Dating to the first half of the first millennium BCE, the Katha Aranyaka is a ritualistic and speculative text that deals with a dangerous Vedic ritual that provides its sponsor with a new body after death. In a new critical edition, Michael Witzel presents this work which transitions the Vedic ritual into the philosophy of the Upanishads.

Containing three representative repertoires and over 250 texts, this bilingual (Nepali and English) volume includes both publicly chanted recitals and privately whispered spells of Western Nepal's three leading shamans, annotated with extensive notes.

A detailed discussion by the editor complements this critical edition and translation of the phonetical treatise (Pratisakhya) of the Saunaka Samhita, one of two versions of the second oldest Indian text, the Saunaka Atharvaveda. This contemporary reevaluation helps to re-establish the textual tradition of the Atharvaveda.

This edition is based on new manuscripts of this important treatise on classical Sanskrit poetics by the famous 11th-century King Bhoja of Malwa. The text is important because of the theoretical treatment of the erotic sentiment (srngara) in classical Sanskrit texts, and also as a mine of quotations from Sanskrit and Prakrit poetical texts.

Utpaladeva on the Power of Action provides the first critical edition, annotated translation, and study of the first three chapters of the Recognition of the Lord, a landmark in the history of nondual Saivism by the Utpaladeva, that were recently recovered from marginal annotations in manuscripts of other commentaries on Utpaladeva's treatise.

The pre-Gangesa Navya-Nyaya treatise Upadhidarpana (UD) deals with the upadhi, a key concept in the Navya-Nyaya theory of inference. This volume is the first published edition and translation of the only manuscript of the UD. Notes have been added to elucidate the historical context of the authors, works, and philosophical doctrines in the UD.

A new edition, based on new manuscripts, of King Bhoja of Malwäs eleventh century treatise on Sanskrit poetics, ¿¿¿g¿raprak¿¿a. The work is a mine of quotations, including from lost Sanskrit and Prakit poetry, as well as a theoretical treatment of erotic sentiment.

The R¿jy¿bhi¿eka Manual for the Coronation of King B¿rendra of Nepal contains the only extensive coronation manual available for a Hindu king. Long regarded as highly secret, it can now be presented, after the abolition of the monarchy in its entirety in 2008. This manual was checked and signed by the royal priests and religious advisors.

The Fifth Prap¿¿haka of the V¿dh¿la ¿rautas¿tra includes a critical edition, followed by a translation and a commentary, of the fifth chapter (prap¿¿haka) of the V¿dh¿la ¿rautas¿tra. This chapter is dedicated to the description of the so-called ¿independent¿ animal sacrifice (nir¿¿hapäubandha) in Vedic ritual.

This volume offers insights into the history of the Veda, the earliest texts of South Asia, and their oral transmission. In side-by-side facsimiles, Witzel and Wu present the two oldest known Veda manuscripts, recently found in western Tibet: the Vajasaneyi Samhita of the White Yajurveda and its contemporaneous sister text, a Vajasaneyi Padapatha.

Arte da Lingua Malabar, a sixteenth-century grammar of Tamil written in Portuguese by a Jesuit missionary, reflects the first linguistic contact between India and the West. This English translation by Jeanne Hein and V. S. Rajam also includes analysis of the grammar and a description of the political context in which it was written.

This book presents the earliest South Indian inscriptions (ca. second century B.C. to sixth century A.D.), written in Tamil in local derivations of the Ashokan Brahmi script. The work includes texts, transliteration, translation, detailed commentary, inscriptional glossary, and indexes.

The Vaikhanasas are mentioned in many Vedic texts, yet they are Vaisnavas, monotheistic worshipers of Visnu. Thus, they bridge two key ages in the history of South Asian religion. This text contains many quotations from ancient Vedic literature as well as architectural and iconographical data of the later first millennium CE.

This volume explores the earliest available version of the Sikh canon. The book contains the first critical description and partial edition of the Goindval Pothis, a set of proto-scriptural manuscripts prepared in the 1570s. The manuscripts also contain a number of hymns by non-Sikh saints, some of them not found elsewhere.

Tarun Chhabra offers detailed ethnographic descriptions of multiple aspects of the culture of the Todas, the oldest inhabitants of the Nilgiri Hills of South India. Chhabra's prologue details his journey to becoming a Toda "insider." The text and appendices include significant new data, and the book represents a major breakthrough in Toda studies.

The Nepalese Gurung recitations known as pe form a diverse group of oral narratives performed by a medicine man or shaman to promote health and prosperity. This two-volume set includes an analytical introduction, 13,000 lines of annotated transcriptions for 92 pe, color plate illustrations, and field recordings on an accompanying DVD.

The Raute and Rawat people of the central Himalayan region live by hunting, gathering, and trading wooden carvings. A Comparative Dictionary of Raute and Rawat provides a useful reference work with new information about the speakers' ethnic identities and culturally significant plants, animals, deities, and material culture.

Arthur McKeown examines newly revealed Tibetan and Chinese biographies of Sariputra and a collection of historical documents in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese. These sources point to a fundamental reconsideration of later Indian Buddhism, its relationship with Brahmanism and Islam, and its enduring importance throughout Asia.

The traditions of oral ritual speech in the Himalayas have a lively existence alongside the written "great" traditions that predominate. But the oral traditions are still little known and even less understood. This collection of oral texts from Nepal, Bhutan, and northeast India is rich with translation and editorial interpretation.

The Nepalese Gurung recitations known as pe form a diverse group of oral narratives performed by a medicine man or shaman to promote health and prosperity. This two-volume set includes an analytical introduction, 13,000 lines of annotated transcriptions for 92 pe, color plate illustrations, and field recordings on an accompanying DVD.