The consecration of Kumāra
The role of Thanesar and King Harṣa in the composition of the Skandapurāṇa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12562215 |
|---|---|
| Authors | MARTINE P KROPMAN |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 95-125 |
| Publication date | 2018-10-30 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1356-1863 • E-ISSN: 1474-0591 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1356186318000317 |
| OpenAlex | W2899344339 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 7 |
In ‘The World of the Skandapurāṇa’ , published in 2014, Hans T. Bakker presents a possible scenario for the composition of the Skandapurāṇa 1 (SP), dating its conception to the reign of the Maukhari king Avantivarman in the late sixth century and the completion of its first recension to the times of king Harṣa in the first half of the seventh. Because of the attention it receives in the text, Vārāṇasī is identified as the most likely place of origin; 2 the authors of the text belonged to the Pāśupata Śaivas, writing for a broad audience of mostly lay Māheśvaras. 3 In this paper I would like to comment on some aspects of this scenario by investigating the relations between the SP and king Harṣa – both his person and his region of origin, the kingdom of Thanesar. I will argue that there are internal indications that the original constituent parts of the text may originate from there — and that its further development may have been impacted by the political reality of Harṣa having come to power. My argument will consist of three parts: the first related to the geography of the sacred places mentioned in the SP, the second concerning the way Harṣa is alluded to in the chapters describing the birth and consecration of Skanda and the third about the expansion of the original, “core” part of the SP
Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis · Art · Composition (language · Consecration · Literature · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Reign · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Classics · Eurasian Exchange Networks · History · Indian and Buddhist Studies · Law
| Highly cited | No |
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