[Advaita-l] Re: shodasa upachara puja

[suresh maruthi]

Dear All
Just a minor observation. In all probability Bhaskararaya hailed probably
from a Marathi speaking family in Bijapur which is presently in Karnataka.
His family deity Chandralamba (I think he wrote a work called Chandralamba
Mahatmya) where he constructed a temple in the form of a srichakra meru is
at Sannathi also in this region.

I have also seen in an introduction in Sanskrit to the Shakambari
Sahasranama that Bhaskararaya and his father worshipped this deity and
belonged to the region.

As you may all know the main temple for Shakambari  is at Banashankari
around 5 km off Badami (capital of the Chalukyas) in Bijapur district.

Suresh




From: "Vidyasankar Sundaresan" <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Question - Using SRI SUKTA mantras for shoDasa
>        upachAra        pujas
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Message-ID: <BAY101-F13486DD4514E1CBEFEE3DEDB140 at phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>
>
> >List members,
> >
> >I have seen PURUSHA SUKTA mantras being used widely for pujas to deities.
> >
> >Is it a normal practice to use SRI SUKTA mantras for the shoDasa upachAra
> >pujas for Mother Goddess?
> >
> >Some Telugu people were doing the navarAtri puja this way. They told me
> >that
> >it is common in Andhra Pradesh.
> >
> >Your input is appreciated.
>
> It is common practice for regular shoDaSopacAra pUjA in Maharashtra and
> Karnataka too (but not for AvaraNa pUjA among SrIvidyA upAsakas). I
> haven't
> seen this practice much in Tamil Nadu, but given that Bhaskararaya was
> from
> Maharashtra and moved to Tanjavur, I would not be surprised to see this
> practice among some Tamil speaking groups too. As for Kerala traditions
> and
> north Indian traditions, I don't know how prevalent it is.
>
> One simple reason could be that the number of verses in SrI sUkta easily
> lends itself to the number of upacAras involved in the pUjA. There is also
> an interwoven use of durgA sUkta (jAtavedase sunavAmasomamarAtI...) and/or
> medhA sUkta (medhA devI jushamAnA...) during the pUjA too. The other
> reasons
> could be that in the devI mAhAtmya, the central Goddess is mahAlakshmI and
> that the purusha sUkta itself has a reference to hrI (or SrI in Sukla
> yajurveda) and lakshmI towards the end.
>
> Regards,
> Vidyasankar
>
>