Sanskrit Manuscripts : Pañcarakṣā

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Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'> The <i>Pañcarakṣā</i> corpus ("Five Protections") consists of the <i>Mahāpratisarā</i>, <i>Mahāmāyūrī</i>, <i>Mahāsāhasrapramardanī</i>, <i>Mahāmantrānusāriṇī</i>, and <i>Mahāśītavatī</i>. The earliest evidence for texts grouped together as the "Five Great Dhāraṇīs" comes from Tibetan catalogues around 800 CE, but this compendium is somewhat different from the surviving Sanskrit collection, which is preserved in manuscripts dating back to the eleventh century. These scriptures include spells, enumerations of benefits and ritual instructions for use. With the course of time all of them became deified and five related goddesses emerged. It is, however, important to note that the texts themselves do not have any references to these goddesses. (Zwalf 1985: 70). The script and the layout of this composite paper manuscript clearly points to the 17th century. The last folio is a later supply bearing the date 1682 CE, and it might not have been written much later than the date of production of the kernel; since "there is every reason to believe that it is simply <i class='error' style='font-style:normal;' title='This text in error in source'>a fresh copy of leaf</i><i class='delim' style='font-style:normal; color:red'>(!)</i> found to be damaged" (Bendall 1883: 105), this might arguably be an instance of a copied date (and thus the manuscript might be dated 1682 CE). If this is the case, then this manuscript was written during the reign of Pārthivendramalla, who ruled in Kathmandu between 1680 and 1687. </p>