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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
(
xli)
jointly or singly with the name of the author in the colophons of all the above works.
SANKARĀCĀRYA of Bengal.
A number of Tantric treatises are attributed to one who is generally known as Sankarācārya of Bengal. In one of these works, the Tārārahasya-vrttikā (6320-1), the author is stated to have been an inhabitant of Bengal and the son of Kamalākara and grandson of Lambodara. A MS, of the work belonging to the Durbar Library of Nepal is dated L.S. 511 (1630 A.D.) and a work of the same name referred to in the Tārā-bhakti-sudhārnava of Narasimha may not unlikely be identical with the present work. The actual name of the author, however, seems to have been Sankara Agamācārya as indicated in a MS. of the work in the India Office Library (10., IV. 2603). But it cannot be stated that this Sankara was the author of all the works (L., VI. 2379, HPR., I. 262, L., I. 428, ASB., VIII. 6365, ASB., VII. 5679) attributed to the Sankara of Bengal. As a matter of fact, in most cases the author is referred to simply as Sankarācārya and there does not appear to be any strong case for referring to him as Sankarācārya of Bengal.
SARVĀNANDA.
Sarvānanda, author of the Sarvollāsa (6204) flourished about four hundred years ago at Mehar, a village in the district of Tippera in Eastern Bengal. He is stated to have been totally illiterate. He acquired spiritual success and supreme knowledge through the grace of the Divine Mother, who was propitiated by him through the muttering of a mantra as he was seated on a corpse. Thereafter he earned the epithet Sarva-vidya as all the forms of the Mother were revealed to him. His name is still held in great esteem and his descendants have to this day a large number of disciples all over Bengal. The temple of Kāli at the village of Mehar where Sarvānanda attained spiritual success has become a place of pilgrimage to the people of Bengal and an annual festival is held there to commemorate his attainment of success about the middle of January The life-story of Sarvānanda is described in a Sanskrit work called the Sarvānanda-taranginī attributed to his son Sivanātha.
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