HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 39 Number 1 Article 34 July 2019 Review of Sucāruvādadeśika: A Festschrift Honoring Professor Theodore Riccardi edited by Todd Lewis and Bruce McCoy Owens. Bal Gopal Shrestha University of Oxford Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Shrestha, Bal Gopal. 2019. Review of Sucāruvādadeśika: A Festschrift Honoring Professor Theodore Riccardi edited by Todd Lewis and Bruce McCoy Owens.. HIMALAYA 39(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss1/34 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This Review is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. These words may be translated and interpreted thus: Our creation is that guru (Brahma, the creator); the duration of our lives is that guru (Visnu, the force of preservation); our trials, tribulations, illnesses, calamities and the death of the body is that guru (devo Mahesvara: the force of destruction or transformation). There is a guru nearby (Guru saksat) and a guru that is beyond the beyond (param Brahma). I make my offering (tasmai) to the beautiful (sri) remover Sucāruvādadeśika: A Festschrift of my darkness, my ignorance; (Guru) Honoring Professor Theodore it is to you I bow and lay down my Riccardi. life (namah). Riccardi’s students Todd Lewis Edited by Todd Lewis and Bruce and Bruce McCoy Owens, both McCoy Owens. Kathmandu: Himal to be credited for their enduring Books, 2014. xiv + 398 pages. ISBN contributions to Nepalese religious 9789937597135 and cultural studies, have edited the present festschrift. Sucāruvādadeśika Reviewed by Bal Gopal Shrestha can be translated from Sanskrit into English as “the beloved/ This festschrift is published in honour beautiful teacher/guide whose of Theodore Riccardi (b. 1937), who speech is charming/delightful.” It is taught at Columbia University (USA) therefore a well-suited title because from 1968 until his retirement in the contributions presented here 2000. Riccardi spent a large part of his are mainly by Riccardi’s former life in Nepal, carrying out research students whom he inspired so on Nepalese philology, archaeology, greatly. Other contributors include history, art, and culture. A brilliant peers as well as colleagues who have scholar, he encouraged and inspired either collaborated closely with him a large number of students to carry or benefitted from his scholarly out research in these fields as well as achievements. in the fields of South Asian literature, music, ritual, and religion, with a In total, Sucāruvādadeśika consists of focus on Nepal and Himalaya. Paying 30 articles, which cover a wide range respect to and venerating teachers is of subjects. They are subdivided a long-established tradition in Nepal into five sections: “Homages and and India. The following mantra not Love Songs” (5 articles), “Revealing only addresses the Hindu Trinity, it Histories and Recovering Voices” (7 also acknowledges lessons learned articles), “Identity, Argument, and through life experiences and honors Resistance” (7 articles), “Translation” one’s tutors. (4 articles), and “Beyond Asia” (7 articles). As Todd Lewis states in his Guru Brahma, Guru Visnu, Guru introduction, “The contributors to devo Mahesvara this volume reflect the astounding Guru saksat, param Brahma, breath of [Riccardi’s] academic tasmai sri guruvay namah. expertise, moral engagement, and artistic inspiration our dear maestro 258 | HIMALAYA Spring 2019 Sucāruvādadeśika can be translated from Sanskrit into English as “the beloved/ beautiful teacher/guide whose speech is charming/delightful.” It is therefore a well-suited title because the contributions presented here are mainly by Riccardi’s former students whom he inspired so greatly. Shrestha on Sucāruvādadeśika: A Festschrift Honoring Professor Theodore Riccardi. professor commanded in students, Toffin, Gautam Vajra), Mustangi- Almqvist & Wiksell International). peers and colleagues. The festschrift Gurung (Charles Ramble), and Thakali In “An Unpublished Interview with is our attempt to express the respect, (William E. Fisher). Moreover, it Chittadhar Hriday in 1975,” Nirmal love and thanks for his role in our contains a number of contributions Man Tuladhar not only informs us own journeys” (p. xii). regarding certain aspects of Indian of Chittadhar Hriday’s struggle for and Tibetan religious traditions, not being allowed to write in his J. Gabriel Campbell’s contribution including “India’s Nietzsche: The mother tongue but also unravels the entitled “Love Does Not Look for Supermen in the East” by Jason history of Nepalbhasa, including how Caste” describes how teenagers Freitag, “The Wheels of Karma Rana rulers began to suppress the in Jumla, a remote district located Turn Slowly: Indian Buddhist Newar language by disconnecting in the far western part of Nepal, Deployments of the Medical in Gender it from any official use (pp. 32-33). not only create but also present Construction” by Amy Langenburg, Chittadhar recalls how, when in love songs during singing parties “The Mina Becomes a Demon: Crafting prison, he secretly finished writing in order to entice their future Tribal Identity in Contemporary the epic poem, Sugata Saurava, which partners. Campbell extracted this India” by Maxine Weisgrau, “From is now considered to be one of the article from an unpublished section Hyderabad to Florence: Documenting most important works of Nepalese of his thesis he had submitted as Transmission of Science” by George literature created in the course of the a student of Theodore Riccardi at Saliba, and “Sex, Death, and “Reform” twentieth century. It may be added the Columbia University in 1978. in Eleventh-Century Tibetan Buddhist here that Lewis and Subarna Man Campbell has the following words of Esotericism” by Christian Wedemeyer. Tuladhar have translated this text praise for Riccardi: “He possesses the into English (2010. Sugata Saurabha: alacrity of intellect, the command Notably, several articles highlight An Epic Poem from Nepal on the Life of of modern and classical languages, the importance of the cultural the Buddha by Chittadhar Hridaya. New the knowledge of Western and Asian heritage of the Kathmandu Valley, York: Oxford University Press). histories and their intersections, including the literary tradition and a genuine respect for other persisting in the language referred Bruce Owen’s article “Accounting traditions and peoples that is rare to as Nepalbhasa (Newar/i). For for Ritual in the Kathmandu Valley” indeed. For Ted differences in caste, example, two contributions portray deals with his account (kham/bakham) ethnicity, religion, or any other Chittadhar Hriday’s illustrative life of Bungadyo or Karunamaya, also basis for discrimination are not (1906-1982). This great poet of Nepal referred to as Matsyendranath. He relevant to personal and professional was imprisoned by the Rana regime examines five texts—the Svayambhu relationships—anymore than they (1846-1951) for writing in his mother Purana, Matsyendrapadayasatyakam, are to Jumli Nepalese in love or in tongue, Nepalbhasa, the language Bungadyo Nepāle Hagu Khaṃ, consultations with their gods” (p. 4). he loved and promoted his entire Padmagiri’s Vamsavali, and Wright’s life. In “Memories of Chittadhar Chronicle—in order to substantiate The most important feature of Hṛdaya,” Siegfried Lienhard recalls the accounts of the origins of Sucāruvādadeśika comprises the his friendship with Chittadhar Nepal’s largest festival, Bungaya. In presentation of the religious and Hriday, who assisted him in many the article “Ritual as Theatre: the cultural significance of various ways during his research into and Theatrical Dimension of the Indra Nepalese ethnic groups, such as the translating of Nepalbhasa songs (S. Jātrā Festival (Nepal),” Gérard Toffin Khas (Campbell, Singha B. Basnyat), Lienhard. 1974. Nevārīgītīmañjarī: discusses how the Newar people have the Newars (S. Lienhard, Nirmal Religious and Secular Poetry of the Nevars intermingled theatre with rituals. Man Tuladhar, Bruce Owen, Gérard of the Kathmandu Valley. Stockholm: For example, the living goddess HIMALAYA Volume 39, Number 1 | 259 Kumari and her chariot procession “Beyond Asia.” Here Lewis, in his Bal Gopal Shrestha is an anthropologist through the ancient town of article entitled “Globalization, World and obtained his PhD from Leiden Kathmandu (Yeṃ), and the raising of Citizenship, and Religions Studies University, the Netherlands. He is the yasim pole are the most important Liberal Arts Education in the 21st the author of The Sacred Town of elements of Yamya, more widely Century,” exposes the xenophobic Sankhu: The Anthropology of Newar known as Indra Jatra. Theatrical ethnocentricity encountered in the Rituals, Religion and Society in Nepal performances featuring the Devi cultures of dominant nations, i.e., (Cambridge Scholar Publishing, 2012) and pyakham (dance), Mahakali pyakham, the West. While pleading to bring The Newars of Sikkim: Reinventing Savabhaku pyakham, das avatar (ten about change in western education Language, Culture and Identity in avatars),

Load more