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PREFACE. The number forty-three of the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies, which is being placed now before the students of the Shaiva philosophy, contains a metrical exposition by Varadaraja of the Shivasutras. It is at once clear and concise, as all works bearing the imprint of the Vartika are expected to be. Its present edition is based on the transcript prepared by the departmental Pandits from the original manuscript kindly lent out by Pandit Raghunath Godabole, a renowned Sanskrit scholar from Bombay side. It is, from the beginning to the end, fraught with various mistakes.
The preparation of the text, therefore, seemed at the outset rather hazardous. But later on, prompted by the . desire to bring it out, I tried all possible means of constructing the text. First, I carefully looked into the quotations from the Vartika given by the learned scholar and writer, Bhasvaranandanatha alias Bhaskararaya, in his commentary on the Lalitasahasranama. Their condition, I am sorry to record, is as deplorable as, or worse than, that of the text I had to handle. What helped me to steer safely through the blunders and to arrive at a comparatively better state of the text was
