Devta Murtiprakaranam tatha Rupmandanam

Author(s): Upendramohan Sankhyatirtha
Publisher: Metropolitan Printing and Publishing House Limited

Page 45

( 33
)
from loss of traditions in North India, the Agneya list of the Pancarātra Agamas is conclusively proved to be authentic.
“Now, in the case of the Pāñcarătra, tradition mentions one hundred and eight Samhitās, and in a few, texts about this number are actually enumerated. Such lists, coquetting with the sacred number 108, are, of course, open to suspicion.”
"The fact, however, that none of the available lists of Samhitās, including those which pretend to give 108 names, actually conforms to this number but all of them enumerate either more names or less, is one thing telling in their favour ; and when, as is the case, it can further be shown that a respectable number of the texts enumerated are still available, while not a few of the others are found to be quoted or summarised in the later literature, and that a number of Samhitās which are not included in any of the lists, are either extant or quoted-then the value of the latter can no longer be denied. We have, consequently, collated those lists, four in all, and with them a fifth list found in the AgniPūrāņa, and as a result offer the table in which all the names... have been arranged in alphabetical order.”
"The Kapiñjala list comprises 106 names, the list of Pādma Tantra... 112, that of Visņu Tantra... 141, that of HayaSirsa Samhitā... 34, and that found in the 39th adhyāya of Agni (Agneya)-Purāņa only 25.
A still shorter list, namely that of the apocryphal Nāradiya, has not been taken into account.”
The literature of the Pāñcarātras, like other sectarian literatures, falls into two broad divisions comprising respectively of works of inspired or divine origin and of human authorship. The latter class ---treats chiefly what are called vidhi and prayoga and consists of digests, commentaries, extracts and studies on special subjects, and the like. The former class, consists of the Samhitās or "compositions” (compendia), that is, metrical works
D-5