[Advaita-l] Shiva panchayatana puja. Questions ?

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

We had been away for a month to India for our
daughter's first birthday religious functions. Hence
the late reply. Here's some more info.

I have seen the following texts:

1. A big section of nittyaanhikam mentioned by Stig
below. Published by R.S. Vadhyar and Sons. This has a
laghu-nyaasa.
2. pUjA vidhaanam published by the Sringeri mutt -
available from the Sringeri book depot.
3. A small book published by a Kanchi mutt vidwan in
Kashi giving orignal source texts from various smR^iti
texts - manu, bodhaayana, puraaNa-s, etc.
4. An extensive pa.nchaayatana pUjaa followed by
appayya diixitar. This has the mahaanyaasam,
ashTottarams for all devata-s, the vedic rudra
trishatii and an aagama-saara-rudra-trishatii. 

Unfortunately, the last two are in India with my
father. These are also highly unlikely to be available
anywhere. They were published many decades before. So,
I cannot give the pramaaNa-s (haven't memorized them).
But generally the puujaa is from bodhaayana and the
puraaNa-s. They are the pramaaNa-s.

You can also consult Gudrun Buhnemann's study "Puujaa:
A Smaarta Ritual". This has many references to the
original texts. This should be available in most good
university libraries. 

On a personal note: Stig, your mails are very
informative and I am even more impressed you know R.S.
Vaadhyaar and sons! They are not very popular outside
Kerala. My wife is from Kerala and when we visited
Kerala, my father-in-law told me that he once drove to
R.S.Vaadhyar and sons just to buy their books. Most of
their books are unfortunately in Malayalam, which I do
not know. 

Anyway, for interested folks, you can obtain some of
R.S.Vaadhyaars books (especially nityaanhikam) at
Vijaya Stores in Mylapore, Chennai and also at Giri
trading Agency, Mylapore, Chennai.

Rama 

PS: East or north are in general both acceptable
directions to sit when doing puuja in Tamil Nadu.
Usually it ends up being north since most puuja rooms
are built facing the east and not the west. 

--- Stig Lundgren <slu at bredband.net> wrote:
> Namaste,
> 
> There is one authorative Shiva panchayatana puja
> prayoga
> published by R. S. Vadhyar & Sons (Kalpathy, Palgath
> - 678 003).
> The title of the book is: "Nityahnikam: The Daily
> Routines of
> Every Brahmin). The book is in Devanagari with no
> transliterations or translations. The procedure of
> this prayoga
> is rather much more complex than in the short
> (laghu) prayoga
> published by Ramakrishna Mission (I guess you are
> refering to the
> book by Sri Subramania "Anna" Iyer).
> 
> The order of the dhyana slokas for avahana in
> "Nityahnikam" is:
> Ganapathi -> Shiva -> Shakti -> Vishnu -> Surya.
> Ganapathi is to
> be placed in the South Western direction, Shiva in
> the middle,
> Shakti in NW, Vishnu in NE and Surya in SE.
> 
> Different prayogas gives different instructions on
> the order of
> slokas and even on how to place the the different
> gods (usually
> represented by five different and specific stones).
> Some prayogas
> say that you shall face East while performing the
> puja, and
> others say North. I guess this is just a matter of
> different
> customs, in the same way as celebrations, pujas and
> rituals in
> general are performed slightly different in
> different places and
> communities.
> 
> For some further information on panchayatana puja,
> please read
> the following article:
>
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/articles/panchayatana_puja.htm
> 
> Best wishes
> Stig Lundgren


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