Book Title: Comparative and Critical Study of Mantrashastra
Author(s): Mohanlal Bhagwandas Jhaveri, K V Abhayankar
Publisher: Sarabhai Manilal Nawab
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THE AUTHOR AND THE COMMENTATOR : VIDYANUSASANA
301
kumāra Kávya is a small poetical works in 5 cantos containing 507 verses. His fare however, rests on his Māntric works which apear to be mines of rare information on a cult which has always been very secretive and jealous of any information passing beyond its esoteric circle of adepts and initiates. Besides Sri Bhairava Padmāvati Kalpa his Māntric works are Bhārati alias Sarasvati-Kalpa, Jwālinikalpa and Kāmacāņdālini alias Siddhāyikā Kalpa.
VIDYĂNUSASANA Vidyānusāsana, a great compendium of Mantric treatises com. prised in twenty four chapters containing nearly 7000 verses, is also ascribed to him. Probably, it is edited and enlarged by him. The text as now available contains several later additions and interpolations of Pandita Asādhara's and Hastimalla's Ganadharavalayas, Asä. dhara's Sarasvatistotra, and Rāvana's Bālagraha Cikitsā and quotations from Imadi Bhattopadhyāya's Gāņabhrd-Yantra-Pūjā-Vidhana and Mahasena's Trivarṇācāra. On a consideration of the opening verses 1 and 2 and the verse 139 of the colophon which allude to Matisāgara we are inclined to believe that the author of at least the original nucleus was one named Matisāgara. The work contains a hymn of Sri Pārsvanātha and large extracts from Jwālāmalini Kalpa both by Sri Indranandi of Dravida Sangha who was the pupil of Vappanandi and a grand-pupil of Vāsavanandi and a famous Māntrika who flourished circa Saka 861 i. e. 996 of Vikrama era which is the date of his Jwālinīkalpa. It must be therefore Matisāgara who, as is stated ni the beginning of the work, extracted from and summarised ancient Māntric works of different authors, * and he must have flourished subse
तेषु विद्यानुवादाख्यो य: पूर्वी दशमो महान् । मंत्रयन्त्रादिविषयः प्रथितो विदुषां मतः ॥ ९ ॥ तस्यांशा एव कतिचित् पूर्वाचार्यैरनेकधा । स्वां स्वां कृति समालंब्य कृताः परहितैषिभिः ॥ १० ॥ उदत्य विप्रकीर्णभ्यस्तेभ्यः सारं विरच्यते । ऐदंयुगीनानुद्दिश्य मंदान् विद्यानुशासनम् ॥ ११ ।।
