Introduction

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I. The Manuscripts.

The five texts published here are based on manuscripts which attracted my attention during my stay in Nepal in 1921 and 1929. In 1921 the manuscript of the Akulaviratantram B only was discovered in the collection of His Excellency General Keshar Samsher Jung Bahadur Rana. As the colophon the concluding statement of a text of the manuscript contained the name of Minanātha a legendary teacher, I became interested in it and, with the kind permission of His Excellency, I made a copy of it. But since then, through the pressure of other works, I was unable to direct my attention to this text, and besides, I thought it advisable to wait for further materials. In 1929 I obtained the kind permission of His Highness the late Maharaja Chandra Samsher Jung Bahadur Rana, the then Prime Minister and Marshall of Nepal, to proceed to Katmandu to work on the manuscripts in the Darbar Library. During my stay there, I discovered the four other manuscripts connected with the name and school of Matsyendranātha. Here are the details about the manuscripts:

(i) Kaulajñānanirṇaya: the manuscript belongs to the Darbar Library, No. II, 362(H). The late Mahāmahopādhyāya a title of high scholarly honor H. P. Śāstrī has entered it in his Catalogue of the Palm-Leaf and Selected Paper Mss. belonging to the Darbar Library, Nepal Vol. II, 1915, p. 32. The text is mentioned there as Mahākaulajñānavinirṇaya, being the work of Matsyendranātha or Maccyaghnapāda. The manuscript is written on palm-leaves and contains 35 folia, of which the first two are missing. The writing is old.