Second Skandapurāṇa Project fieldwork trip
The Skandapurāṇa Project considers fieldwork to be essential to the study of purāṇic religious topography and the understanding of the socio-political milieu in which the Skandapurāṇa was composed and disseminated.
A second fieldwork trip in January 2016 focused in particular on the spread of the early Pāśupata movement in relation to the old trade route that runs from the port of Bharuch (ancient Bhṛgukaccha) in present-day Gujarat through Rajasthan towards the old cities of Mathura and Kanyakubja (Kanauj) in Uttar Pradesh. Results from this fieldwork have been synthesized in Elizabeth Cecil’s PhD dissertation Mapping the Pāśupata Landscape. The Skandapurāṇa, Lakulīśa, and the Śaiva Imaginary in Early Medieval North India (6th-10th Century CE) (Brown University, 2016). The visit to Nagari (ancient Madhyamikā) on this trip led to a joint article by Hans Bakker and Peter Bisschop: ‘The Quest for the Pāśupata Weapon. The Gateway of the Mahādeva Temple at Madhyamikā (Nagarī)’ (Indo-Iranian Journal 59 [2016], 217-258).{C}