Puja: A Study in Smarta Ritual

Gudrun Buhnemann is a scholar of Sanskrit and Hindu ritual studies, and this De Nobili Research Library volume is her standard scholarly study of Hindu domestic and temple puja procedure within the Smarta tradition, including the ritual use of the conch shell. Its strength is close textual and ritual detail grounded in the actual Sanskrit ritual manuals the Smarta tradition uses, making it the reference work specialists cite for the precise sequence and meaning of puja actions. Its limit is that it documents Smarta procedure specifically, so a claim about puja as practiced in a different Hindu tradition, such as a Vaishnava or Shaiva ritual manual with its own distinct sequence, needs a source specific to that tradition rather than an extension of this one.