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Monographs on vaikhAnasa-AGama.

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SundaraRajan • November 2, 2002 


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.




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