1 LIFE OF ABHINAVAGUPTA

PRELIMINARY.

Abhinava, it appears, knew the importance of biographical information about a writer in understanding his works. He has, therefore, not remained silent about himself, like Kālidāsa, about whose date scholars differ by centuries, or like Bhāsa, whose very authorship of his own dramas is now a matter of keen controversy. He has given a sketch, though very brief, of his person, descent and the then social conditions in the concluding portions of his two works, the Tantraloka and the Parātrimśikā Vivarana.+++(5)+++ This sketch, when coupled with the information gathered from the stray references to his life in the vast literature that he, his pupils, his commentators and the followers of his theories have produced, gives us a more or less connected and a little detailed, though still incomplete, account of his life. It can be fairly completed but only with the help of an oral tradition which is current down to this day in a few learned Brāhmana families as well as in a few muslim homes in Kashmir. But an oral tradition, though old and persistent, is after all an oral tradition, and as such cannot have the same value in the eyes of a historian as the evidence of inscriptions or literary works. However, in the case of Abhinava, it is possible for us to know exactly the forces and influences which produced such a mind, even if we confine ourselves to well-authenticated facts. For the purpose of understanding his writings we need no more,

Two ABHINAVAGUPTAS.

The Abhinavagupta, studied in the following pages, is a different person from his namesake who was a śākta contemporary of Sankarācārya. The only source of information about the other Abhinavagupta is the Sankara Digvijaya of Mādhava, which is noticed under a slightly different name “Sūkṣma Sankara Vijayas” in Dr. Aufrecht’s catalogue. It gives the following account of him :

He belonged to Kāmarūpa (Assam). He was a śākta and wrote a śāktabhāṣya, probably a commentary on the Vedānta Sūtra of Bādarāyaṇa, from the śākta point of view. He was a great opponent of the monistic theory of Sankara. He engaged Sankara in a controversial discussion (śāstrārtha) when the latter reached Assam in the course of his Digvijaya. In that he was defeated and so, according to the then prevalent practice, became a disciple of the victor. Like our Kashmirian Abhinavagupta, his śākta namesake also is referred to as an “ācārya”.

• 1. Ś. D., ch. XV S. 158.
• 2. Ś. D. comm., ch. XV Ś. 158.

Our object in giving the above account is to point out that if Mādhava’s testimony in reference to the śākta Abhinavagupta is to be considered reliable, he should not be confused with the Saiva Abhinavagupta of Kashmir. Their distance from each other is about two centuries. The former, if he was Sankara’s contemporary, must have lived in the last quarter of the 8th and the first half of the 9th century A. D., for, according to the generally accepted opinion, Sankara lived from 788 to 820 A. D.; and the latter, on the evidence of the dates of composition of the Krama and the Bhairava Stotras and the Brahati Vimarsini, given by the author himself, belonged to the second half of the 10th and the first quarter of the 11th century A. D. In view of these facts we fail to understand why Dr. Aufrecht has included the śāktabhāṣya in the list of Kashmirian Abhinavagupta’s works in his Catalogus Catalogorum.+++(4)+++ This work, according to his own statement : “śāktabhāṣya, Quoted by Mādhava. Oxf 258b” (C. C., P. 25) is no other than the one, the authorship of which is attributed to the Sakta Abhinavagupta by Mādhava, as we have stated above. For, on page 258 of Catalogi Condicum Manuscriptum containing an extract from the Sankara Digvijaya which is referred to by our learned Doctor in the above quotation from Catalogus Catalogorum P. 25, the same passage is given as that on which our own account of the śākta Abhinavagupta is based. It runs as follows:

Tad-anantaram eṣa Kamarūpān
Adhi-gatyābhinavopaśabda-guptam
ajayat kila śākta-bhāṣya-kāram
Sa ca bhagno manasedam āluloce
Oxf 2586

We now leave it to our readers to form their own conclusion on this point.

HIS ANCESTRY.

The earliest ancestor of Abhinava, so far known to us, was Atrigupta. He lived in Antarvedi, the region between the Ganges and Yamuna, in the reign of king Yaśovarman of Kannauj (Circa 730-740 A. D.*)). He attained a very great fame for erudition in all the branches of learning in general and in the Saiva Sāstras in particular. King Lalitāditya of Kashmir (Circa 725-761) was so much

CHAPTER 1.

impressed with his scholarship and so eager did he become to take him (Atrigupta) to his capital that soon after the conquest of King Yaśovarman he approached and requested Atrigupta to accompany him to Kashmir. And so earnest was the request that Atrigupta could not but accede to it.

1. P.T. V., 280.
2. \* E. H. I., 386.

Thus the family, which after about two centuries, was to produce the Saiva Abhinavagupta, migrated from Kānyakubja to Kashmir. There a spacious house was soon built by the king’s order on a plot opposite the temple of Sitāṁśu-maulin on the bank of river Vitastā (Jhelum) for the immigrant family to permanently settle, and a big jāgir was granted for its proper maintenance. After Atrigupta, we know nothing of the family for about hundred and fifty years. Abhinava has evidently left a gap between his earliest known ancestor, who migrated to Kashmir very shortly after king Lalitāditya’s victory over Yaśovarman of Kannauj about 740 A. D. and his grand father Varāha-gupta, whom we cannot place earlier than the beginning of the 10th century A. D. The language of the text, on which our conclusion is based, leaves very little doubt on this point. To show the distance of time between Atrigupta and Varāhagupta there is used the word “anvaya” (family) 3. In marked contrast with this, we find the word “ātmaja” used, to indicate the immediate descent of Cukhulaka, the father of Abhinava, from Varāhagupta. From the very brief description of the latter, it is evident that the successive generations had maintained the scholastic traditions of the learned family and that he (Varāhagupta) also was a great scholar and devout worshipper of śiva.

• 1. T. A., Ah. 37 (MS.)
• 2. T. A., Ah. 37 MS.
• 3. T. A., Ah. 37 (MS.)

HIS PARENTS.

His father, Narasimha-gupta, alias Cukhulaka, was of great intellectual calibre, had equal proficiency in all the Sāstras and was a great devotee of śiva. The name of his mother was Vimalakalā 1. She was a very pious and religious lady. They were a happy couple and attended to household duties not because of any worldly attachment to them but simply because they were enjoined by the scripture.+++(5)+++ The family atmosphere was thus thoroughly religious and scholarly.

In view of the facts stated above and supported by the authority of Abhinavagupta himself, quoted in full in Appendix (A), the statement of Pandit Madhusudan Kaul of the Kashmir Research Department in his introduction to the I. P. V., Vol. II, P. 7 about the name of Abhinava’s father requires correction. His statement runs as follows:

“He received instruction in the Pratyabhijñā-śāstra from his father Lakṣmaṇa-gupta, son of Narasimha-gupta and pupil to Utpala”

Lakṣmanagupta, though undoubtedly a teacher of Abhinava in Pratyabhijñā was certainly not his father; nor was there a relation of father and son between Narasimha gupta and Lakṣmaṇagupta. The father of the latter, according to the following statement of Abhinava, was Utpalācārya :

“Traiyambaka-prasara-sāgara-vīci-somā-
nandātmajotpala-ja-lakṣmaṇa-gupta-nāthah.”
T. A., Ah. 37 (MS.)

• 1. T. A. Comm., I. 14.

ABHINAVA AS A YOGINĪ-bhū.

In and about the 10th and the 11th centuries the atmosphere in Kashmir was thoroughly surcharged with the spirit of religion. The people then believed in the efficacy of religious observances. All that was great and good was believed to be attainable by some kind of religious performance or other. For each worldly gain there was prescribed a separate elaborate ceremony. A king wishing to enlarge his kingdom, a student anxious to widen his knowledge, a father aspiring for a worthy son and a merchant desirous of prosperity in his business, each had to perform some special rite to bring about the speedy realisation of his desire. When failure came inspite of these observances, it was attributed to some flaw in the performance of the prescribed rite. Abhinava’s literary greatness also, therefore, was naturally attributed not so much to his own exceptional natural intelligence and great assiduity as to a certain religious frame of mind in which his parents had united for his birth?. It is enjoined in the saiva scripture that the parents, desirous of a son, who in Saiva terminology is called Yoginībhū, should rise above all worldly ideas at the time of meeting and that the mother should identify herself with Śakti and the father with śiva.+++(5)+++ And it is believed that only a Yoginībhū can properly understand and intelligibly propound the Saiva monism. According to Jayaratha, the popular idea of Abhinava’s being yognībhū was based upon Abhinava’s own authority. For, he, as Jayaratha interprets, refers to this fact in the very first verse of the Tantrāloka.

• 1. T. A. Comm., I, 14-5.LIFE OF ABHINAVAGUPTA

PROBABLE TIME OF HIS BIRTH.

The era, used in the works of Kashmir writers from the earliest time, is known as Saptarṣi.+++(5)+++ It began 25 years after the commecement of Kali era, as we learn from Abhinava’s own statement in the concluding verse of the Br̥hatī Vimarsins :

“Iti navatitamesmin vatsarentye yugāmse
Tithi+++(=15)+++-śasi+++(=1)+++-jaladhi+++(4)+++-sthe mārgaśīrṣāvasāne
Jagati vihita-bodhām Iśvara-pratyabhijñām
Vyavr̥ṇuta pari-pūrṇām preritah śambhupādaih”.

It states that he finished the Brhatī Vimarsinī in the 90th year when 4115 years of Kali had elapsed. This year (1934) it is the 5035th year of the Kali and the 5010th year of the Saptarsi era, as any almanac will show. If we deduct 25 out of the figures, which stand for the Kali era at present, they will show the Saptarsi year. This shows that the word “navatitame” in the above quotation stands for 4090th of the Saptarsi era just as 34th, used to-day, would naturally mean 1934th A. D.+++(5)+++

There are two more works of Abhinava in which the dates of composition are given. One is the Bhairava Stava (appendix C) which was written on the 10th day of the darker half of Pauṣa in the year 68. And the other is the Krama Stotra (Appendix C) which was composed in praise of śiva on the 9th day of the darker half of Mārgaśīrṣa in the year 66.

The years of composition of these Stotras refer to the Saptarṣi era. The dates, therefore, of the earliest and the latest known works of Abhinava clearly show that the period of his literary activity extended over a quarter of a century from 4066 to 4090 of the Saptarsi era i. e. 990-1-1014 15 A. D.

• 1. Bh. S. 2. K. S.

There is no reason to believe that the Krama Stotra, though the earliest of the known dated works of Abhinava, was his first work. More on this point will be found in the chapter dealing with his works. It seems, therefore, that he began his literary career five years earlier i. e. in 985 A. D. And taking into consideration the extensive study that he made of various branches of learning, not privately but at the houses of so many teachers, and the maturity of style and judgment, found in his earliest work, it will be unreasonable to suppose that he began writing when he was only in his teens or early twenties. It will, therefore, not be wrong to say that he was born between 950 and 960 A. D.

HIS CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION.

As a child he was sent to a neighbouring Pāthaśālā, located in a second story. Even there he showed signs of his future greatness, and deeply impressed his teachers with his exceptional intellectual power and fluency in speech. His name is ample testimony to that. It is said that the name Abhinava-guptapāda, by which our great writer is known, is not that which was given him by his parents but that which he received from his teachers in early school days for no other reason than that he was an intellectual giant and as such was an object of terror, like a serpent, to his young school fellows.+++(5)+++ This is what, according to Vāmanācārya, the author of the Bālabodhini, a commentary on the Kāvyaprakāśa, Mammaṭa means to convey by referring to our Abhinava as “Abhinava-guptapāda” in his work. To this very fact Abhinava himself most probably refers in the following line :

“Abhinavaguptasya kr̥tih seyam yasyoditā gurubhir ākhyā.” T. A., I, 50.

1. B. B., 95

ABHINAVAGUPTA, AN INCARNATION OF śēṣa,

In South India there is a tradition, current among those who even now dance in strict accordance with the rules, given by Bharata in his Natya Sastra, that Abhinavagupta-pāda was an incarnation of śeṣa. This tradition seems to be another and later interpretation of the name “Abhinava-guptapāda”.+++(5)+++ It was most probably suggested by the great reputation that he enjoyed, like Patañjali alias śeṣa, for his thorough mastery of all the intricacies of grammar and his extraordinary skill and originality in dealing with the difficult grammatical problems.+++(4)+++ To his great proficiency in grammar he himself refers in the Tantrāloka as follows:

“Pitrā sa śabda-gahane krta-sampraveśaḥ.” T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)

In this quotation the words “gahane” and “sam” are of special significance. This tradition found general acceptance among later generations, because it was imagined to have the support of his teachers also who gave him the epithet, Abhinava-guptapāda, which can, without the least fear of contradiction, be interpreted as new Sesa.”

HIS TEACHERS.

Great was his love of learning and endless and incessant was his endeavour for its acquisition. Knowledge for its own sake’ was his motto. This he preached both by personal example and precept, as found in the T. A., VIII, 205-6. He held that even though one may be lucky enough to get a teacher who has attained perfection himself and can easily show the way to it to his disciple also, yet that is not sufficient reason for not approaching other teachers for the knowledge of other Agamas and other paths.+++(5)+++ This he has given as the only reason for his waiting upon teachers of other religions such as Buddhism and Jainism. (1. T. A., VIII, 206.)

He approached the best teachers of his time in different subjects for the traditional and the most authoritative information. Such was his humility and devotion to them that they, out of sheer love for him, told him all the secrets of learning in their possession,+++(5)+++ and so well did he learn and retain all that he was taught and so well did he impress his teachers with his extensive study that all of them unanimously declared him to be an all-round ācārya.

So insatiable was his thirst for learning that he found all its fountain heads in Kashmir insufficient to quench it. He, therefore, went outside the beautiful land of Kaśyapa in quest of a bigger fountain head. How many places outside the valley of Kashmir he visited and how many learned teachers he waited upon, there is no evidence just at present in hand to show. There is, however, no doubt that he went to Jalandhara2 and learnt Kaulika3 literature and practices from śambhunātha. In fact it was through Sambhunātha’s teaching that he got peace and attained self-realisation.

• 1. T. A., Ah. 37 (MS.)
• 2. T. A., Comm., I, 236.
• 3. T. A., Comm., I, 31.
• 4. T. A., I, 51.

The following is the list of his teachers with the subject or subjects, which they taught, shown against each name :

• 1. Narasimhagupta 5 Grammar (his father)
• 2. Vāmanātha 6 Dvaitādvaita Tantras.
• 3. Bhūtirāja-tanaya 7 Dualistic Saivaism.
• 4. Bhūtirāja 8 Brahmavidyā.
• 5. Lakṣmanagupta 1 Krama and Trika Darsanas.
• 6. Indurāja 2 Dhvani.
• 7. Bhatta Tota 3 Dramaturgy.
• 5. T. A., Ah. 37 (MS.)

• 6, 7, 8 T. A., Ah. 37. (MS)

• 1. T. A., Comm., III, 194.
• 2. Dh. L., I.
• 3. A. Bh., 1.

Others in whose cases subjects are not specified :

• 8. Sricandra. (T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.))
• 9. Bhakti-Vilāsa.
• 10. Yogānanda.
• 11. Candra-vara.
• 12. Abhinanda.
• 13. śivabhakti.
• 14. Vicitranātha.
• 15. Dharma.
• 16. śiva.
• 17. Vāmana.
• 18. Udbhaṭa.
• 19. Bhūtīśa.
• 20. Bhāskara.

HIS FAMILY AND ITS ATMOSPHERE.

Besides his father and mother, his family consisted of an uncle, Vāmana-gupta, a younger brother, Manoratha, and five cousins, Kṣema, Utpala, Abhinava, Cakraka and Padma-gupta. His uncle’s name is included in the list of his teachers. In the Abhinava Bhāratī, Abhinava quotes his uncle who, therefore, seems to have written on poetics.+++(4)+++ His brother was deeply learned in all Sāstras and was the first to be favoured by Abhinava by being accepted as his disciple.

• 5. A. Bh., 297.
• 6. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)

And if the name Kṣema be supposed to stand for Kṣemarāja, the author of the Spanda Nirnaya and other works on Saivaism, and the others, classed with him, be also supposed to have had more or less similar qualities, then his cousins also seem to have been very highly educated. Whatever may have been their education, there is no doubt that they prized devotion to śiva above all things and considered all their wealth to be no better than a straw. Thus the whole family atmosphere was surcharged with the spirit of renunciation, zeal for advanced study and above all devotion to śiva. There was left nothing to be desired in the atmosphere, in which he passed his childhood, for the development of a healthy brain and of a spirit necessary for the great work that he had before him.

SOME EVENTS IN THE FAMILY AND THEIR EFFECT ON HIS YOUNG MIND

His mother was extremely dear to him. It was she alone who made home sweet for him. But unfortunately, or, as Abhinava took it, fortunately, she was snatched away by the cruel hands of death when he was a mere child.2 Home, therefore, lost most of its charm for him, but not all, because his father was still there. To him he was tied with a double cord of filial and pupilary love. But soon after the death of his mother, his father also, though still young, renounced the world and took to a life of asceticism.3 These events seem to have taken place when he was studying literature (Sahitya). They turned his mind from all worldly attachments to devotion to śiva, so much so that he made up his mind never to marry 4.+++(5)+++ That was the turning point in his life. That was the end of his literary study and life at home. Thenceforward, in order to feed his suddenly kindled flame of devotion with the oil of the āgamic lore, he spent his time in the houses of his āgamic teachers. His Tantraloka is a living testimony of the great zeal with which he pursued the study of the āgamas and of the unparalleled proficiency which he acquired in them.

• 1. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)
• 2. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)
• 3. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)
• 4. T. A., Ah. 37.(MS.)

HIS ASCETIC PERIOD.

The period of preparation was now over. The natural gifts and the favourable circumstances had immensely helped him in thoroughly equipping himself for the memorable work that he was destined to accomplish. The long and healthy scholastic and religious tradition of his family unbroken for over two hundred years, the noble and scholarly life of his father and the perfectly religious life of his mother, the harmony and the healthy atmosphere of his family, his high education, his practical training in various kinds of yogic practices, his never-broken vow of perfect celibacy and the consequent indefatigable energy, his drinking at so many fountain heads of learning both in and outside Kashmir, his untiring efforts and their fruition in scholastic attainments and above all his great sacrifice of all the comforts of wordly life, all combined, gave him such an intellectual and spiritual power and made his pen so powerful that even to day he is recognised as the highest authority on the monistic Saivaism in respect both of its rituals and its philosophy, as well as on the poetical theories of Rasa and Dhvani.

• 1. T. A., IV., 202.

Thus equipped he began his life’s work at a sufficiently mature age. What he has contributed to the philosophical literature of India, though at present ordinary people know him only as a writer on poetics, is not a production of a mere imaginative mind in an easy chair in a beautiful and a little secluded place, as so many persons think, but a record of personal experience, gained through continuous yogic experiments, carried on for years. If we carefully read even the few available works, out of so many that his extraordinarily powerful pen produced, we can trace out the successive stages in his spiritual attainment. Successively he worked on the three systems which are known in the Saiva philosophical literature as the Krama, the Trika (of which Praty-abhijñā is only a branch) and the Kula.+++(4)+++

When from the study of literature his mind suddenly turned to devotion to śiva, it was Lakṣmanagupta who first gave him intellectual satisfaction by feeding him with intellectual food in the form of an exposition of the Pratyabhijñā 1. He taught Abhinava Krama-Darśana also. This fact Jayaratha has established after a long controvertial discussion in his commentary on the Tantrāloka. There is circumstantial evidence enough to believe that he was taught Krama system first. In any case the earliest date of the Krama Stotra, to which reference has already been made, is a clear proof of his having first tried his spiritual experiments in accordance with the Kramic instructions. The attempt was not quite a failure, for, in the Krama-keli, which is probably Abhinava’s first known work on the Krama system, he attributes his then spiritual greatness to his following the Kramic teachings. But it did not yield the expected result.+++(4)+++ He then tried the Trika system, but to what result, there is not enough evidence just at present in hand to show. There is, however, no doubt about this that the result of that also did not perfectly satisfy him, for, it is from the Kula system alone that he affirms to have got perfect satisfaction and peace.+++(5)+++ Because of this it is that we find in his works a more glowing tribute paid to Sambhunatha, his Kaulic teacher, than to any one else.5

• 1. M. V.V., 2.
• 2. T. A. Comm., III, 194.
• 3. T. A. Comm., III, 191-2.
• 4. T. A. Comm., I, 31.
• 5. T. A., I, 16.

That before writing the Tantraloka he had realised his identity with the Parama śiva and that it was due to following Sambhunātha’s teaching, he himself says in his introduction to the Tantrāloka :

“Bodhānya-pāśa-viṣa-nut-tad-upāsanottha-
Bodhojjvalo ‘bhinava-gupta idam karoti.”
T. A., I, 16.

The concluding line of the Paramārthasāra and Yogarāja’s commentary on it give a very clear idea of the spiritual greatness attained by Abhinava, before he began writing, at least, his more important works. The passage runs as follows:

“Abhinava-guptena mayā śiva-caraṇa-smaraṇa-dīptena”.

P. S., 198.

śivasya para-śreyaḥ-svabhāvasya svātma-sthasya cid-ānandaika-mūrteḥ yāni caraṇāni cid-raśmayaḥ, teṣām smaranaṁ, śabdādi-viṣaya-grahaṇa-kāle nibhālanaṁ, prati-kṣaṇaṁ svānubhavāpramoṣaḥ, tena dīptah parāhantā-camatkāra-bhāsvaraḥ.. ………………iti upadeṣṭuḥ samāvisṭa-maheśvara-svabhāvo ’nena uktaḥ syāt.”

This seems to be the foundation of the traditional belief amongst Kashmirian Pandits that Abhinavagupta was Bhairava incarnate.+++(4)+++

HIS MIRACULOUS POWERS.

Human nature is always the same everywhere. We should, therefore, not be surprised at the suspicious eye with which the present generation looks at all claims to individual spiritual greatness, particularly because there are so many impostors abroad now. In the time of Abhinavagupta also people did not very easily believe in any such claim. It was, therefore, not without any reason, as the literary tradition says, that they looked upon Abhinava as Bhairava incarnate. Just as the enlightened people of the present time would not admit any body’s claim to realisation of identity with the Almighty unless he should show himself to be almighty, so did not the contemporaries of Abhinava. Following the authority of the śrīpūrva śāstra he has himself given the five infallible signs of such a man 1 which can briefly be stated as follows:

• 1. Unswerving devotion to Rudra.
• 2. Power of incantation (mantra-siddhi)
• 3. Control over all the elements.
• 4. Capacity to accomplish the desired end.
• 5. Sudden dawning of the knowledge of all the śāstras.

And we learn from Jayaratha, who also bases his statement on the authority of his teacher whose verse he quotes, that Abhinava’s contemporaries found all the above signs unmistakably present in him.+++(4)+++ This was the secret of his great influence with his contemporaries and of the unparalleled success as a writer in the field of both the Saiva philosophy and the poetics.

• 1. T. A. Comm., VIII, 136.
• 2. T. A. Comm., VIII, 137.LIFE OF ABHINAYAGUPTA

CENTRES OF HIS ACTIVITY.

We have had occasion to speak about the site of his ancestral home. In one of the MSS. of the T. A., belonging to Pandit Maheśvara Rājdān of Kashmir, a different reading of the passage, descriptive of the site where a house was built for Atrigupta, is found. It reads “Vaitasta mūrdhani” instead of “Vaitasta rodhasi” as in the MS. in the possession of the writer of these pages. The conclusion was easy and so once the exact spot of Abhinava’s ancestral home was thought to have been discovered. The writer visited the place and found that there is a small village just above the source of Vitastā (Vaitasta mūrdhani) which even to this day is called Guṭṭar Guṇḍa or Guṭṭal Guṇḍa. Guṇḍa is a common Kashmiri word for village and Guttar or Guttal can easily be supposed to be a corruption of Gupta with local affix “r” or “l”. But on a little more careful study of the text it was found that this interpretation does not suit the context. For, the word “tasmin” in the beginning of the verse1 stands for “Pravara-pura”, described in the preceding lines, the site of which has been identified within modern srinagar. The source of Vitastā is at a distance of over thirty miles from there. It cannot, therefore, reasonably be supposed to have been within Pravarapura. The reading “Vaitasta rodhasi” (on the bank of Vitastā), therefore, seems to be correct. There is, however, a way in which the other reading also can be explained, that is, by taking “Vaitasta mūrdhani" with “parikalpita-bhūmi-sampat” and not with “nivāsam”. The passage then will mean that the king, having granted a jagir to him above the source of Vitastā, got a house constructed for him in that part of Pravarapura, which, because of its being situated opposite the temple of Sitāmhsumaulin, was, in point of sanctity, better than any other.+++(5)+++ This appears to be quite probable. The evidence in hand, however, is too insufficient for any definite statement on the question.

• 1. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)

There being no evidence to the contrary, it is natural to suppose that he passed his childhood in his ancestral home. There is, however a definite statement regarding the place of composition of the Vārtika on the first verse of the Mālini Vijaya Tantra. It was composed in Pravarapura East.

• 2. M. V. V., 135.

It seems Pravarapura also was divided into different parts and was called Pravarapura East and so on, just as the different parts of Simla at the present time are known as Simla East and Simla West. Was this the same place as his ancestral home? Nothing can be said definitely, but the probability is that it was. In any case, from the reason that prompted Mandra to request Abhinava to shift to the former’s cityl to write out a systematic guide to various paths to final emancipation, as found in the Trika literature, it is evident that it was not a fit place for undertaking such a great work as the writing of the Tantrāloka. Therefore, when the request was made and the necessity for a change was explained the latter agreed. The Tantrāloka was thus written not in the ancestral home of the author but in that of his loving disciple.

• 1. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)

THE LAST SCENE OF HIS EARTHLY EXISTENCE.

Unlike what has been written so far, we have no other authority than that of a tradition for what we are going to write in the following few lines. We have not so far been able to trace any written authority on which this may have been originally based. The tradition, which, as we pointed out before, is current not only in old Pandit families but also in some of the old Muslim houses in the locality, says that on one day Abhinavagupta, after finishing his work, as he thought, along with twelve hundred disciples walked into the Bhairava cave and was never seen again. The cave is there even now. It is about five miles from Magam, a place midway between Srinagar and Gulmurg. A village in its neighbourhood and a brook, running down below the hill, wherein the cave is, both are known by the name of Bhiruva and so is the cave itself. The writer visited the locality and went into the cave also. Its mouth is at a sufficiently great height from the foot of the mountain and from below looks like a crevice in a rock.

It goes deep down into the earth. Its opening is very narrow so that a man cannot get into it very easily. At the sight of a small opening and a dark deep pit immediately one hesitates and fears to go in. One cannot walk but has to crawl into it and that too at places with great difficulty. It has several ways leading to places where one can sit undisturbed and meditate. One of these places is big enough conveniently to accommodate forty to fifty persons ; it is round in shape and at a great height there is a chink towards the sky, but it does not allow the rays of the sun to penetrate so far into the cave as to be perceived by the persons within. Far into the cave a hole was pointed out, through which none but a child can find a passage, and it was said that Abhinavagupta went that way. It was also stated by the guide that the hole was said to have been much bigger in earlier times, but was slowly and imperceptibly getting smaller with the passing years.+++(5)+++ Outside this opening on the rock walls there seems to be inscribed something with a very sharp instrument, but it is not possible to say at present as to what it is. It is quite probable that the upper layer of the rock may have got so cracked as to look like inscribed figures. Down the hill was accidently seen a religious minded and long bearded Mohammedan, bent double with age, slowly walking reclining on his slender stick. He was approached and questioned if he knew or had heard any thing about the cave. The only information, that he could give, was “Hama ne hamārā dādā se sunā, Abnācārī bārā sau sāgirdom ke sātha isa ke andara gaya bas phir pichu nahīm lauta.” (I heard from my grand father that Abnācārī went into it along with twelve hundred disciples but did never return). On being further questioned if he knew any thing more he said with great simplicity that that was all, he had heard, and that to add a word to it, his love of truth and religion did not permit him. This was said in such a tone and with such an expression of sincerity and truthfulness on wrinkled face that the writer felt convinced that whatever may be the exaggeration in the number of followers, the fact that Abhinava went into the cave with some followers and was never seen again was perfectly true, for the simple reason that to retire from the din of the world to some inaccessible place to take Samādhi seems to be the natural termination of the earthly life of a person like Abhinavagupta.

A BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF HIS LIFE.

He was born in a noble and learned Saiva Brāhmaṇa family in Kashmir. His father was a religious minded person of scholastic attainments and mother a pious orthodox lady. He highly respected the former (1. M. V. V., I. ) and deeply loved the latter. He faithfully served his teachers and they lovingly revealed to him the secrets of learning in their possession. He was perseverant, industrious and exceptionaly intelligent and so his study was extensive and his command over various subjects was great. He tried innumerable experiments personally to ascertain the truth of what he had read or heard about spiritual matters, and unchallengeable is, there fore, the correctness and precision of his conclusions. Great was his spiritual power and his contemporaries had occasions to see its greatness in deeds. Clear was his head, powerful his memory2 marvellous his intellectual capacity, wonderful his command over the language, shrewd his eye to see the real nature of a thing from different angles of vision and beautiful and convincing the way of putting his ideas; and every page of his available books is an unmistakable proof of it.

• 2. T. A., Ah. 37. (MS.)

He was devoutly served by his disciples and he has gratefully acknowledged and rewarded their services by mentioning them in some of his important works. Thus noble was his birth, loving and gentle his temper, honest and rigorous his life, strong and admirable his character, brilliant and highly useful his career, memorable and lasting his contribution to both poetics and philosophy, and glorious was the last scene of his earthly existence when like Tennyson’s legendary king Arthur, he parted from his followers never to be seen again.