RÁMASSWÁMI, Cavali Venkat (trans.)

£1,750 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Sapta-Shati, Or Chandi-Pát; Second revised edition of an 1823 translation of one of the earliest complete texts in Hindu Shaktism. Whereas the first edition was illustrated with engravings after paintings by Hindu artists, here the publisher took advantage of breakthroughs in photographic reproduction. Both editions are now scarce: WorldCat records seven of the first and six of the second, with just one copy of the latter traced at auction.The Sapta-Shati, also known as the Devi Mahatmya, was compiled before 600 CE and is divided into three episodes totalling 13 chapters and 700 verses. In successive episodes, Mahakali, Lakshmi and Saraswati do battle with and eventually vanquish demons, with the latter representing the negative impulses of humanity. In Shaktism, reciting the text affords the believer protection and ultimate release from the cycle of birth and death. Therefore, the verses "remain among the best known devotional words in contemporary India" (Coburn, p. 1).Rámasswámi's translation was first published in 1823 but, according to Janárdan Rámchandraji, the publisher of the present edition, "during the period which has since elapsed, it [the 1823 edition] has become so rare that not a single copy of it is procurable" (p. iii). Rámchandraji's version made only minor changes to the text, including typographical corrections and the introduction of the Jonesian system for spelling proper names.

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