Summer meeting in Leiden
After a fruitful meeting in Kyoto earlier this year, this year’s second team meeting was held at Leiden University last September. On the agenda were reading sessions, discussion of the synopsis and edition up to chapter 91, and various presentations from PhD’s and a PostDoc working on the Skandapurāṇa.
One of the fascinating chapters discussed this time was chapter 75. It is found in the larger framework about Hiraṇyākṣa – the king of Daityas – and his son Andhaka. When the Daityas conquered the gods in one of the battles, they arrange a Kaumudī festival and a Devarātri. A detailed description of the festivities follows. This description, or rather prescription, has various literal parallels in several Dharmanibandha works, such as Lakṣmīdhara’s Kṛtyakalpataru. Chapter 75 will shed a new light on the relationship between the Skandapurāṇa and these later Dharmanibandha works.