Monographs on vaikhAnasa-AGama.

Dear Mr Huesken,

Many thanks for putting together the astonishing list of recent 'vaikhAnasa'

references.

Your posting induced me to look up my copy of a work on vaikhAnasa Agama yet

again, with the rewards of re-reading a classic. Your list already

includes a reference to this work ~~

> Colas, Gerard, "The concept of upAya in the Mok.sopAyapradIpikA", Aligarh

Journal of Oriental Studies II, No. 1-2, pp. 117-122 <

Nevertheless, this work itself merits substantive mention in your list, as

suggested hereunder ~~

>> raGhupati bhaTTAchArya, "mOkshOpAya-pradeepikA", edn September 1981,

original in Sanskrit-dEvanAGari, with Tamil translation by S. Krishnasvami

aiyanGAr,

editor, SrivaishNava sudarSanam,

5 Puthur Agraharam,

Tiruchirappalli-620017, Tamil Nadu (India).

Phone 0431-773705.<<

My gains to-day were to recapture in my memory the etymology of the crucial

word-names 'praNava' and 'vaikhAnasa'.

On praNava ~~ SriSAstrE bhaGavAn mareechi: Aha, bhaGavantam pravaNayati iti

praNava:, iti || pravaNa iti vaktavyE, paSyaka: kaSyapa: itivat

vaRNa-vyatyaya: || pravaNayati vaSee-karOti ityartha: ||

On vaikhAnasa ~~ The pradeepikA cites brahmANDa-purANa thus,

viSEsha-khananam tatra kRtavAt Garbha-vaishNava:, viSEsha-khananAt tasya

Suddha-sattva-vichintanAt. (vaikhAnasa since he dug into the scriptures for

learning on Suddha-sattva.)

Contrast this with the explanations available in Sri Sankara's bhAshyam and

Sri parASara-bhaTTa's bhaGavad-GuNa-darpaNa bhAshyam

on vishNu-sahasra-nAmam

of Sriman-mahA-bhAratam.

The relevant name vaikhAna: occurs as the 987th, and in the SlOkam

"Atma-yOni: svayam jAtO vaikhAna: sAma-GAyana:"

As the burden of the SlOkam is incarnation, both the savants relate it to

the Maker's will to incarnate Himself, as borne out in the texts, "sO

achintayat, bahu syAm iti", "ajAyamAnO bahudhA vijAyatE", "tasya dheerA:

parijAnanti yOnim" etc.

Sri Sankara explains: "dharaNeem viSEshENa khanitvA, pAtAla-vAsinam

hiraNyAksham, vArAham rUpam AsthAya jaGhAna, iti purANE prasiddham". [since

He, assuming the form of Boar, dug deep into the earth to reach for

hiraNyAksha hiding in the nether world, and slew him, as recounted in the

purANa-s.]

Sri parASara bhaTTa explains: "janitvA, bhava-du:kha-vikhananAt". [since He

is born and shatters the grief of birth-cycle.]

By the way, the pradeepikA repeatedly refers to the Sri-SAstra of mareechi.

Any idea of this work? is it the same as the mareechi-samhita referred to

in your list ?

any clue to its publication ?

Has anyone issued a descriptive catalogue of the vaikhAnasa samhitA-s

something on the lines of the comprehensive one issued in 1967 for the

pAncha-rAtra by KKAVenkatachari and H.Daniel Smith ?

best wishes from

T.S. Sundara Rajan,

at Srirangam, Tamil Nadu, India.