Atharvavedins in Tantric Territory The ¯ A˙ ngirasakalpa Texts of the Oriya Paippal¯ adins and their Connection with the Trika and the K¯ al¯ıkula With critical editions of the Par ¯ ajapavidhi, the Par ¯ amantravidhi, and the *Bhadrak ¯ al¯ ımantravidhiprakaran . a Alexis Sanderson Introduction: The Rise of ¯ Agamic Ritual The early medieval period, from the fifth century onwards, saw the ´ Saivism of the Mantram¯ arga rise to pre-eminence as the principal beneficiary of patronage throughout the Indian subcontinent and in much of Southeast Asia. Among the religious specialists whom we would expect to have been adversely affected by this development were those brahmins, Atharvavedins or adherents of other Vedas versed in the rituals of the Atharvaveda, who had long been appointed to office as the personal priests of rulers (r¯ ajapurohitah . ), performing their conse- cration ceremonies (r¯ ajy¯ abhis . ekah . and pus . y¯ abhis . ekah . ) and a wide range of rituals, regular and occasional, for the protection of the kingdom and the thwarting of its enemies. 1 It is not possible to establish from the evidence known to me how far this of- fice was overshadowed or diminished by the rise of ´ Saivism in particular king- doms and periods. But encroachment by ´ Saiva officiants into ritual territory long reserved to it is clear from the literature that sets out the rituals that they should or may perform when occasion arises. The ´ Saivas prescribed their own form of royal consecration ceremony, to be performed by their officiants for a king who had received ´ Saiva initiation; they offered a full range of apotropaic, protective, and hostile rituals, both Saiddh¯ antika and ´ S¯ akta ´ Saiva, for which kings were the natural patrons; and they had in the Netratantra detailed instruc- tions for a class of officiants whose practice shadowed or took over most of the functions in which the brahmanical r¯ ajapurohitah . operated, including the per- formance on the king’s behalf of his daily and periodic worship. The Netratantra, I have argued, is a Kashmirian work, and there is no evi- dence that it was followed widely outside Kashmir itself. It is possible, there- fore, that it had little or no impact on the practice of courts in other regions. 2 Moreover, while the practice of giving ´ Saiva initiation to kings is well and widely documented from the seventh century onwards, that of following this 1 On the question of the Veda of the king’s personal priest see nn. 28 and 29 on p. 204 below. 2 On the function, provenance, date, and influence of the Netratantra see SANDERSON 2005b.