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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
( xxii)
does not seem to have occupied an important place in the literature of the Tantras. The work is not mentioned in the well-known lists of Tantras, e.g., the Toḍala-tantra list and the Vāmakesvara-tantra list. Scarcely does any of the famous Tantric compilations refer to or quote from this work. Of the few works which contain references to the Mahānirvāṇa mention may be made of the Kramadikṣā of Jagannatha 1 (6525) and the Sarvollasa-tantra (6204) of Sarvananda 2.
It seems that it was owing to these facts that the work was suspected in some quarters to be a fabrication in whole or in part of Hariharananda, the guru of the celebrated Hindu 'reformer' Raja Ram Mohun Roy, 'written with the object of pushing the Reformist views' of the latter. It may be pointed out in this connection that the work 'was first published by the Adi Brahma Samaj under the editorship of Ananda Chandra Vedantavagisha'. "The preface to this edition stated that three MSS. were consulted; one belonging to the library of the Samaj, the second supplied by Durgadas Chaudhuri, and the third taken from the library of Raja Ram Mohun Roy.' 3
(2) Works on Different Deities.
We have here a number of works pertaining to the cult of Durga. The Maya-tantra (5985), which may or may not be identical with the work of the same name quoted in the Tantra-sāra, the Śakti-ratnākara and the Agama-tattva-vilāsa, prescribes (ch. 8 and 9) and speaks highly of (ch. 12), Kulācāra in connection with the worship of Durgā with the details of which it deals. As some of the MSS. end with chapter 7 the genuineness of these chapters may not be beyond all doubts. Two works assigned to the Rudra-yamala (5879, 5885) deal with the worship of the deity during the famous autumnal festival of Northern India known as Navaratri as well as with the nine well-known forms of the deity. The Vanadurga-kalpa
1 Some of the references have been identified, e.g., ungafage fazių (fol. 18A=VIII. 279), देहल्यां नाभिमात्रायाम्, प्रत्येकबिन्दु मतिमान्, वसुधारां प्रकल्पैवम्
(fol. 21A-IX. 91-93).
2 Chapters 6, 58 and 59.
3 Introduction and Preface to the edition and translation of the work by Arthur Avalon (Madras 1928, Calcutta 1913).
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