[Advaita-l] Prayoga texts from the raajaa-vedapaaThashaalaa

[V Subrahmanian]

One more practice I have noticed, on comparison, of the Tamil smarta
tradition and the non-Tamil smarta tradition:

When the father or mother dies, the son/s tonsure their head completely,
leaving out a small shikha. This practice is almost rigorously followed by
non-Tamil smartas. The Tamil smartas are not particular about this.

During any puja where a purohita officiates, at the end the entire
womenfolk present there are given an opportunity to worship by offering
turmeric and kumkum to the deity. A separate dedicated slot is given to
them for this. This practice I have observed almost as a default among
non-Tamil smartas. Among Tamil smartas this is not seen. There may be
exclusive women's functions like Sumangali prarthanai, kaaradaiyaan nonbu,
varalakshmi vratam, etc. but the above is different from these.

In this manner one can observe a lot of differences across sects, regions,
etc.

regards
subbu

On Sat, Jan 20, 2018 at 8:53 AM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste
>
> I heard Tamil Brahmins have a different Prayoga for Karmas like Pitru
> Tarpana. They are using Kurchas and do Avahana of Pitrus in those Kurchas
> and then they give Tila Tarpana with Vedic Mantras for male ancestors.
> For female ancestors like Pitamahi there are no Vedic Mantras before Tila
> Tarpana. But Karnataka and Andhra Brahmins are giving Tarpana to Pitrus
> without any Kurchas. There is no Avahana for Pitrus. They are not muttering
> Vedic Mantras before Tarpana even for male ancestors like Pitru, Pitamaha
> and Prapitamaha. Like this there may be differences in other Prayogas also.
> Can we follow the Dravida Prayoga without knowing and following our own
> Prayoga?
>
> I have seen some shops are selling ready made Kurcha packets for Iyers and
> Iyengars and Kerala Iyers also. They have 20 or 30 Kurchas all ready made
> for Tarpana. But my Sraddha Purohit said this is not correct. If you
> prepare Kurcha you cannot simply keep it tied. You have to use it same day
> and untie it in the end. If you keep it tied and for many days you are
> committing sin. Even the Pavitra for Tarpana has to be untied and Visarjana
> is done.
>
> On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 11:56 PM, Balasubramanian Ramakrishnan via
> Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > If you are interested in prayoga read on, otherwise please delete the
> > email.
> >
> > Good news for students of prayoga. The raajaa-vedapaaThashaalaa is a
> > premier veda-paaThashaala, set up in the mid 1500-s by bhagavantaH
> > govinda-diikShitaH in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. It teaches the R^ik, yajur
> > and saama-veda-s even now and is the premier veda school in Tamil Nadu.
> > They have reissued many of their old books and are available for
> purchase.
> >
> > I) Many of the prayoga texts were compiled by muttu-shrautinaH, who
> passed
> > away in the early 1940-s. The texts are all in the grantha script with
> > pretty much no printing errors, so there is your motivation for learning
> > this beautiful script :-). muttu-shrautinaH was an accomplished scholar
> and
> > had performed the vaajapeya-shrauta-yaj~nam as the adhvaryu when he was
> > just 16 years old! Here is a list of the books that I obtained with a
> brief
> > description:
> >
> > 1. kalpa-cintaamaNi: puujaa vidhaanam compiled from various sources for
> > different vrata-s like the shiva-raatrii, etc. The mantras in this are
> > largely not vedic, but from smR^iti texts.
> > 2. aashvalaayana puurva-apara-prayogam
> > 3. aashvalaayana shraaddha prayogam: 2 and 3 are smaarta prayoga texts
> for
> > the R^ig vedins and it's a testimony to the scholarship of
> > muttu-shrautinaH, whose sva-shaakhaa was the yajur veda.
> > 4. aapastamba puurva-apara-prayogam
> > 5. aapastamba shraaddha prayogam: 4 and 5 are smaarta prayoga texts for
> the
> > aapastamba yajur vedins.
> > 6. bodhaayana puurva-apara-prayogam: 6 is the smaarta prayoga text for
> the
> > bodhaayana yajur vedins.
> > 7. saamaveda puurva-apara-prayogam.
> > 8. shaanti-ratnaakaram (2 parts): smaarta shaanti yaj~nams such as the
> > aayuShya, navagraha, etc., for yajur vedins. This has over 150 yaj~nam-s
> in
> > it!
> >
> > II) I also got the following saama veda texts.
> >
> > 1. saama veda samhitaa with svara-s in the grantha script (2 parts).
> > 2. saama veda aShTa braahmaNam in 3 parts in the devanaagarii script.
> Note
> > that the saama braahmaNam does not have svara-s in the Tamil tradition.
> >
> > III) A few other non-prayoga books in devanaagarii are also available
> > including the nice compilation R^ig-veda-shR^i~Nkalaa. However, this
> seems
> > to be a recent work and does not have the svara-s unlike the yajur
> > counterpart.
> >
> > Their contact info:
> >
> > email: rajavedapatasala at gmail.com
> > Phone: (0435) 2425948, 2401789.
> >
> > The lady at their office was super helpful.
> >
> > Rama
> > _______________________________________________
> > Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> > http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
> >
> > To unsubscribe or change your options:
> > http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
> >
> > For assistance, contact:
> > listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Regards
>
> -Venkatesh
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>