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14. THE APABHRAMSA PASSAGES FROM ABHINAVAGUPTA'S
TANTRASĀRA AND PARĀTRIMŚIKĀ-VRTTI
(1) Among the original texts of Kashmir Saivism. there are a few, which, eventhough composed in Sanskrit, contain also a few verse passages in Prakrit and Apabhramsa. Abhinavagupta's Tantrasāà and Parātrimšikā-rriti, composed in the first half of the eleventh century A. D., "contain a number of such passages. There are thirtytwo passags in the Tantrasära and seven in the Parātrirnšikā-Vrtti. It has been Abhinavagnpta's practice in these texts to give Sangraha verses in Sanskrit as well as Apabhramsa (or Prakrit) at the end of every chapter or some similar convenient interval. They were intended to present the gist (tātparyārtha, samk sepārtha) of the topics discussed in the body of the chapter. The importance and value of these Apabhramsa passages, especially in view of extreme of the Apabhraṁsa texts belonging to the Vedic-Brahmanical tradition, are quite obvious. But unfortunately the text of the Apabhramsa verses in Abhinavagupta's above-mentioned works, so far as it is available in the printed edition? (and probably also in most of the available manuscripts), is full of serious corruptions and errors. Some of the Tantrasāra passages are comparatively less corrupt, but its other passages and all the Apabhramsa passages in the Paratrimšikā-vriti are quite hopeless. They have been given in the printed edition as chaotic jumble of letters from which it seems near-impossible to make out any connected verbal structure or palpable meaning.
If the passages would have been handled by one with some knowledge of Apabhraņģa, some at least of the textual errors could have been avoided. But about 1918 when the above texts were published little Apabhraṁsa literature had come to light and there were very few at that time who could claim adeguate know
