Sabhākaumudī (2) - Gyan Bhandaar
Gyan Bhandaar
This page contains the catalog record for a Sanskrit manuscript titled Sabhā-koumudī authored by Nārāyaṇa, held in the Deccan College Manuscripts Library under accession number 3883. The manuscript belongs to the Dîk collection and is written in Devanagari script. It comprises folios 17 through 86, incomplete, with 8 lines per page and 32 letters per line, measuring 8.7 by 4 inches. The work appears to be a treatise on sabhā or assembly-related topics, possibly covering judicial, administrative, or social assembly procedures in classical Indian tradition.
Sanskrit

Sabhākaumudī (2)

This Sanskrit manuscript, titled *Sabhā-koumudī* by Nārāyaṇa, is a significant treatise on Hindu ritual law (*dharmaśāstra*), specifically concerning ancestral rites (*śrāddha*) and funeral ceremonies (*pretakarma*). The text preserves detailed prescriptions for *piṇḍadāna* (rice-ball offerings), *tilatarpaṇa* (libations with sesame water), and *sapindīkaraṇa* (ritual integration of the deceased into the ancestral lineage), drawing upon authoritative sources such as the *Bṛhannāradīya*, *Smṛtidarpaṇa*, and *Madanaratna*. Notable features include precise calendrical regulations for *Mahālaya* observances, prohibitions against certain ritual acts on specific weekdays and lunar days, and metrical verses (*kārikās*) summarizing complex juridical positions. The manuscript's inclusion of tantric seed-syllables (*bīja-mantras*) and numerical tables suggests a syncretic approach integrating Vedic orthopraxy with esoteric practices, while its Deccan College provenance indicates its importance within the Dīkṣit collection of Sanskrit legal and ritual literature.