Csaba’s Field Trip in Kathmandu
From 9 Feb to 21 Feb 2020, Csaba Kiss was carrying out research in Kathmandu, Nepal. His plan was to obtain digital copies of manuscripts of the Nityāhnikatilaka, a post-10th-century ritual manual of the Śaiva tantric tradition of the goddess Kubjikā and her partner Navātman. Csaba managed to examine all those manuscripts of the text that are available at the National Archives (NAK, about 20 MSS). He also looked at some manuscripts of the Vṛṣasārasaṃgraha and the Śivadharmottara.
In the end, digital copies of five Nityāhnikatilaka manuscripts were ordered, and due to the very efficient work carried out by the wonderful staff at the NAK (Saubhagya Pradhananga, Kumar Shrestha, Rubin Shrestha, Manita Neupane, Jyoti Neupane, Sahan Ranjitkar and others), all were delivered quickly and in excellent quality.
The Nityāhnikatilaka being Csaba’s project B, in March it was high time that the Śivadharma team were introduced to the text. From March 1 on, there were several Zoom reading sessions focusing on Csaba’s emerging critical edition of the first few chapters of this fascinating paddhati of the Ṣaḍanvayaśāmbhava division of the Paścimāmnāya.
In Kathmandu, Csaba also got in contact with Budur Bhattarai and the ‘Care and Conservation of Manuscripts and Artefacts in Nepal’ workshop at the Āśā Archives, and managed to get into the Yogi Naraharinath Memorial Library and Museum near the Gorakhnath Mandir, not far from the Paśupatināth temple, Yogi Naraharinath being the important editor of the editio princeps of the Śivadharma corpus.
