Harinarayana Bhatt (ed.), The Commentary of Vistubhatta on the Anargharāaghava of Murāri. Critical edition. Volume I: The Commentary of Visnubhatta. Volume II: The Anargharāghava of Murāri as Read by Visnubhatta,Notes, Appendices

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

The Place of the Mālavikāgnimitra within Kālidāsa's oeuvre

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

The Mazandarani Dialect of Kalijān Rostāq

Located in the Caspian forest south of the capital city of Sāri in Mazandaran, the rural district of Kalijān Rostāq is home to a number of close-knit villages which share a local Mazandarani dialect. The vernacular offers some authentic features in phonology, morphology, and lexis that are otherwise lost in the urban variety spoken in Sāri due to contact with Persian. In an attempt to elucidate on the loosely-known aspects of the Mazandarani language, this study offers a sketch grammar of the dialect of Kalijān Rostāq with a view to typological features. The glossary that follows includes many Caspian cultural items that are already moribund in the language.     

The Religious Practice of the Sādhaka According to the Jayākhyasamhitā

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

A Gāthic Rite? A Critique of the Cosmological Interpretation of the Gāthās I

In the last few decades ritual interpretation of the Gāthās has replaced the biblical one as the dominant paradigm. The emphasis on the central role of ritual in the Avesta is well justified. This realization has given rise to the question of the role and meaning of ritual in the Gāthās. Marijan Molé had tried to argue that the Gāthās in fact describe and accompany a rite whose purpose was the preservation/renovation of the cosmic order. Students of the Gāthās working within the new paradigm have taken up Molé’s general frame. They have tried to show that the Gāthās, collectively or individually, is the text of a particular rite that served, among others, to preserve the cosmic order, especially the daily rise of the sun. The article questions the validity of this thesis. Its focus is on the version of the thesis we find in a number of recent publications by Jean Kellens. He tries to show that the first Gāthā (Ahunauuaitī) describes a unitary pre-dawn ritual that comprised a haoma rite and an animal sacrifice, and had cosmological and eschatological pretensions. His textual analyses and arguments are examined in some detail. The article concludes that Kellens's attempt must be deemed unsuccessful.     

Michael Comans,Extracting the Essence of the Śruti: The Śrutisārasamuddharanam of Totakācārya

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

The Oxus Temple: Localization of the Avestan Vahvi Dāityā

The article describes an attempt to determine the localization of the Avestan river Vahvi Dāityā using archaeological materials from the Oxus Temple (southern Tajikistan). A comparative analysis of archaeological materials and written sources makes it possible to identify the Amu Darya River with the Avestan Vahvi Dāityā.     

Poetic license in the Buddhist Sanskrit Verses of the Upālipariprcchā

Indo-Iranian Journal -