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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
( xxxiv)
and grandson of Divakara of the Bharadvaja family. He was the author of the Vaṭukarcana-samgraha (6466) in which reference is made among others to the Sivarcana-candrikā of Śrīnivāsa (?), the Puraścarna-candrika of Devendrāśrama (?), the Dipadana-vidhikrama of Ramacandra, author of the Bhairavapūjā-paddhati (?), the Mantra-mahodadhi of Mahidhara (?), the [Simha (?)] Siddhantasindhu of Śivānanda (?) and the Mantra-martanda of the father of the author (fol. 275B).
KASINATHA 1.
Kāśīnātha Bhatta Bhada, alias Šivanandanatha of Benares, son of Jayarama Bhaṭṭa and Vārāṇasī, and grandson of Sivarama, was the author of a large number of small treatises, principally on Puranic and Tantric topics, MSS. of which are available in different parts of Northern India. His scholarship which is testified to by his literary remains is also indicated by a number of epithets found in the colophons of one or other of his many works. It would appear that he belonged to a comparatively modern period, probably 17th-18th century. For no MSS. of any of his works is known to be old. Most of the MSS. of his works belonging to the Society are of the 19th or even the present century. Of the older MSS. one, that of the Sambhavācāra-kaumudi, was copied in 1849 V.S. or 1793 A.D., while that of another, the Sivadvaita-prakāśikā (IO., IV. 2513) was copied in 1858 V.S. (1802 A.D.). An incomplete date which may not unlikely be the date of Kāśīnātha is found at the end of his commentary on the Jñānārṇava-tantra. It is stated there that the commentary was written in the month of Asvina, on the fifth-day of the bright fortnight in the Prabhava year of the sixty years cycle. Though nothing can be stated definitely in the absence of the mention of the era, it is known that the year in question fell in 1747, 1687 and 1627 A.D. And our author may not unreasonably be supposed to have written the work in any of the above-mentioned
years.
The upper limit of the age of the author may be ascertained by his references to earlier works and authors in his books, e.g. Bhattoji Dikṣita (16th century) in his Tantra-bhūṣā, Śyāmā-rahasya in the
1 For a detailed account of the life and works of Kāšinātha cf. JRASBL., IV. 455-65.
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