Śaivāgamapaddhati - II

Copied from a MS belonging to J. Visvanathasivacharyar, Melamankalam, Madurai Dt. There are 8 extra pages in this text; three pages at the beginning, which record the text title, contents and a note (written by the scribe in english) and five pages at the end, which record the subject matter of pp. 192-204 (śūrapadmavadhaḥ) in Tamil script titled:curasaṃhāram. The note reads:śaivāgamapaddhati - II. The palm leaf manuscript measuring 38 X 4 cṃ in length and breadth, belongs to śrī P. Visvanātha śivācārya, Melamaigalaṃ, Madurai Dt. There are 89 leaves in the manuscript, written in grantha script at about size to seven lines per page. The writing is terribly bad. The numbering of the leaves is not continuous. The numbers run from 1 to 15 frist, then commence from 42 and end with 75 and again start from 134 and close with 149. It may be that either the remaining leaves should have been lost and missed or more properly, groups of fragmentary leaves from various manuscripts might have been put together and made into one form. The transcript copy covers 284 pages and contains about 1400 granthas. Except one paṭala on dhvaja - pratiṣṭhā taken from kāmika all subjects treated here are mere prayoga or demonstrations on the practical side. One aṣṭottara-śata-nāmāvali on the lord of Cidambara, coming in here in arcanā-rūpa is noteworthy. There is also a Vivāhakarma prayoga on Subrahmaṇya's marriage with Valli and Devasenā, which reads well. There are some other items which deal with mantra, mālāmantra, yantra, kavaca etc., of subrahmaṇya and a treatise on mantrajapa of Gaṇapati. Specimens of some yantras of Subrahmaṇya have also been included. There is a conto on śurasaṃhāra alleged to have been taken from Skānda. This is followed by a reproduction of the same in Tamil, extending to about twelve pages and written in grantha script. The language used is not pure, bu is a domestical one and that too as peculiar to one of Kerala state, speaking Malayālam. (Neelakantha Sarma 04/10/1960). PP.283 - 284 contains daigrams of different cakra-s. [It is a collection of rituals from different āgama-s and puraṇa-s some are unfinished like gaṇeśanāmāvali, No. 9 i.e. sūrasaṃhāra is in Tamil written in Grantha characters - in original, that was again copied in this transcript in Devanagari characters]