Essay name: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
Author: William James Arraj
The essay represents a study and partial English translation of the Svacchandatantra and its commentary, “Uddyota�, by Kshemaraja. The text, attributed to the deity Svacchanda-bhairava, has various names and demonstrates a complex history of transmission through diverse manuscript traditions in North India, Nepal, and beyond.
Page 455 of: Svacchandatantra (history and structure)
455 (of 511)
External source: Shodhganga (Repository of Indian theses)
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448
And he
Bound, transmigrates again, so long as he does not know/51/
the lord, the agent of emanation, the binder of all creatures.
[The SÄmkhya view is incorrect] on account of the impossibility of
insensible matter being an agent, [and] on account of [their] not
admitting [instead] that [agency] for the person, [with the result
that] even in contact [between matter and the person, which they
deny] there would be no manifestion of the world; [thus,] as long
as he [viz., the SÄmkhya adherent] does not attain the lord, the
determiner of the bondage and of the liberation of both of these
[i.e., matter and the person], although freed by the SÄmkhya
[doctrine], so once more he revolves [in transmigration] on
account of the non-manifestation of the [true] knowledge of
reality.
[23] [Next] he says in order to characterize dispassionateness:
From dispassionateness he renounces sons [and] wives [that
are] cherished and very esteemed,/52/
elephants, horses, vehicles, and friends, pleasures, wealth.
[Very su-] i.e., well (susthu) esteemed, i.e., favorable.
Moreover,
Fasting, repetition, holy places, five fires, lying in
water;/53/
after having performed these terrible he renounces the body
all at once;
The penance (tapa�) called the five fires is the placing [of oneself],
in summer, in the middle of five fires, called, Dakṣiṇa� [in the
south], Ä€havaniyaá¸� [in the east], GÄrhapatyaá¸� [in the west],
Aupasadikaá¸� [in the north], and SÄvitraá¸� [the sun overhead].
These [terrible], i.e., penances.
He says how he renounces [the body]:
from mountain, tree, water, and fire, by hurling off,
hanging, feeding [oneself]. /54/
The meaning is: having [first] resorted to a mountain, etc.; tree,
i.e., a banyan (vaá¹aá¸�) located at PrayÄgaá¸�, etc.; feeding [oneself]
