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Review
Öriya transcript of the MS, which is presently deposited in the Orissa library of the South Asia Institute of the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
The unpublished Sanskrit treatise is edited by Dr. Gaya Charan Tripathi, the Principal of the G. N. Jha Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeetha, Allahabad. However, the main part of this publication is his treatise giving lucid and analytic exposition of the contents of the text along with illuminating notes on references, elucidation, irregular readings and interpretation.
In the Introduction the learned author has dwelt upon the migration of Brahmins from Kanauj, their settlement in and around Jajpur in Orrissa, and the establishment of many Brahmin villages around Puri after the construction of the Jagannath temple.
A village exclusively or mainly inhabited by the Brahmins is here designated Śāsana, since it was established through a charter or decree of the ruling chief or the king of the region, who granted the land to the Brahmins and exempted it from tax (a-grahara). Many of the Sasanavillages lying around Puri still bear the names of the respective kings who founded those particular village.
The present treatise deals with the general lay-out of a Brahmin village (sasana) in Orissa and deseribes the religious ceremonies involved in the act of founding such a village.
Sasanakaraṇam is a small Sanskrit text covering 18 printed pages. It is an anonymous work. It is more of the nature of a compendium put togather the ritual. It quotes the for the need of a priest directly connected with mantras only in their pratikas, which presuppose the knowledge of the full mantras by heart. Dr. Tripathi assigns the work to the 18th century on the basis of its reference to Magumipaddhati (circa 1700 A.C.)
The work can roughly be divided into two parts. The first part consists solely of metrical quotations from different works giving general instructions on the establishment of the village, the place and directions of habitations for different castes and for the erection of the temples for different deities etc. In this context Dr. Tripathi observes that most of the villages in Orissa have a natural declivity towards East and that they are, therefore, of bhadramukha type. He expounds the meaning of the varṇāṣṭaka system on the basis of a passage in unpublished Śilpi-candrikā in a.23. Silpi-candrika also explains in detail the four bandhas mentioned in this work and observes that only these bandhas are suitable for the construction of residential houses. Dr. Tripathi well observes that a well situated in South-East
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