Kaula Jnana Nirnaya (Calcutta Sanskrit Series)

(ii) Akulavīratantram (A)—the manuscript belongs to the Darbar Library [Nai 1036]. It is also written on palm-leaves and contains 6 folia. The text is incomplete and seems to have formed the first chapter (paṭalaḥ prathamaḥ) of a bigger work. The writing is fairly old, and the text has marked similarity with Akulavīratantram B.

(iii) Akulavīratantram (B)—the manuscript belongs to the Collection of His Excellency General Keshar Samsher Jung Bahadur Rana and forms No. 10 of that Collection. It is written on palm-leaves and contains 14 folia, of which the 13th is missing. It contains a post-colophon Samvat 730 Āśvina lunar month badi dark fortnight 2—the date corresponding to 1610 A.D. It has been added by a later hand, and the writing of the manuscript belongs to an earlier date—about the 13th century A.D.

(iv) Kulānandatantram—The manuscript belongs to the Darbar Library No. Nai 135. It is also a palm-leaf manuscript consisting of 7 folia. The writing is Newari of the 14th-15th Century A.D. The text is briefly called Kulānandam.

(v) Jñānakārikā—the manuscript belongs to the Darbar Library No. I. 1634 (Tāda). It is written on palm-leaf. The text forms the sequence of another text which I have not edited here because the latter has no similarity with the former texts in points of doctrine. Besides, this part of the manuscript is so corrupt that I cannot make any sense out of many of the verses. Its colophon runs thus—"Thus the Tattvasāra Essence of Reality is finished. For the sake of his own soul, by the Śrīkaṇṭhaguru, who is a great Pāśupata follower of the Pashupata sect master, a holder of the image of the blessed Paśupatinātha, this knowledge-book [was written]. May it be auspicious." So, though it is copied with the Jñānakārikā, it has nothing to do with the school of Matsyendranātha. Nor have I been able to gather any information on this pretentious Śrīkaṇṭhaguru who styles himself "the great ācārya teacher of the Pāśupatas" and identifies himself with Paśupatinātha. He seems to have been a later local man of Nepal and has probably nothing to do with the traditional ācārya of the Pāśupata sect bearing that name.