The Karmapañjikā (KP) a priestly manual composed by an otherwise unknown Śrīdhara. It elaborately explains the domestic rituals according to the Paippalāda tradition of the Atharvaveda. Professor Arlo Griffiths and I have been working on a critical edition of the KP since 2005. Arlo Griffiths has wide experience in the field of editing texts, especially the books of the Saṃhitā of the Paippalādins, while I have been trained in the study of ritualistic texts. Our complementary expertise might be fruitfully combined by working together on editing the KP.
The edition is based on six palm-leaf manuscripts written in Oriya script each containing approximately 175 folios. The text of the KP is divided into two sections, namely the Jātasaṃsthāḥ (domestic rituals) and Durbalakṛtya (obsequies and subsequent rites). The jātasaṃsthās are seven in number and the section dealing with these rituals is entitled Jātasaṃsthākarmapañjikā and deals with the domestic rituals that a male Paippalāda brahmin must undergo from marriage to graduation from Vedic study. This section shows a break after the first nine chapters dealing with general paradigms of ritual. Hence, we have decided to present our edition in three volumes with the text contained in approximately same number of folios, the first two consisting of the first section of the text and the third volume dealing with the second section of the text.
Professor Griffiths and I have completed the press-copy of the first volume of our edition. The basic collation and editorial work of this volume was done during my fellowship of six months in Leiden as a Gonda fellow in 2008-09. The volume contains an exhaustive introduction of about 100 pages addressing various issues not only of interest to the scholars of Vedic studies but to the scholars of other disciplines as well, followed by the the edited text in nine chapters spread over approximately 110 pages.
I now intend to commence the work on the second volume. This volume of the KP consists of Jātasaṃsthās (basic rituals for one who has been born). During this period of my project, I will be responsible for reading and transliterating approximately 70 folios of manuscript,On the basis of the collated manuscripts, I will prepare provisional drafts of the edition, which will later on be finalized at joint working sessions with Professor Griffiths.