Sanskrit Manuscripts : Pārameśvaratantra

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Sanskrit Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>One of the oldest known dated Sanskrit manuscripts from South Asia, this specimen transmits a substantial portion of the <i>Pārameśvaratantra</i>, a scripture of the Śaiva Siddhānta, one of the Tantric theological schools that taught the worship of Śiva as "Supreme Lord" (the literal meaning of Parameśvara). No other manuscript of this work is known, but nine chapters are transmitted in the <i>Prāyaścittasamuccaya</i> of Hṛdayaśiva (see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-02833/1'>Add. 2833</a>), where the work is referred to as the <i>Puskaratantra</i> or <i>Puṣkara-Pārameśvaratantra</i> (see Goodall 1998, particularly p. xliii). According to the colophon, it was copied in the year 252, which some scholars judge to be of the era established by the Nepalese king Aṃśuvarman (also known as Mānadeva), therefore corresponding to 828 CE. The <i>Pārameśvaratantra</i> is so far unpublished. Since only few of the folio numbers have been preserved and are clearly identifiable, the sequence of folios must be regarded as provisional until the whole text is transcribed and properly studied. For this reason, here the folios are numbered sequentially, from 1 to 62, even though in some cases there is a discrepancy between the assigned folio number and the actual folio number. This is clear in the case of the final folio, now 62, bearing the colophon and the folio number 113 on the verso, where the text is clearly the continuation of the text on the present f. 43v, where the numeral 112 is partially legible. The bundle also includes a one-leaf fragment of a <i>Jñānārṇavamahātantra</i> (see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='http://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-01049-00002/1'>Add.1049.2</a>). </p>