PREFACE.
This edition of the Parā-Trimshikā together with the commentary, the latter by Abhinavagupta, is based on three different manuscripts, a very brief account of which is given below. It is a very rare work bearing on the Advaita Shaiva Philosophy of Kashmir and, as a divine revelation, makes its appearance for the first time as Volume XVIII of the Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies.
The first MS., of which a copy was made, was the one belonging to Rājānaka Sudarshana, a well known Sanskrit scholar of Srinagar. It is written on Kashmiri paper in Shāradā characters, and bears 1895 anno Vikrami (1838 A. D.) as the date of its transcription. It is by no means accurately written. There are sundry mistakes to be met with throughout and many of its leaves, here and there, are also missing.
The second but the most useful MS., I am informed, pertains to the collection of MSS. which one Revatī Ramana of the Deccan got copied during his stay in Kashmir, it being not known exactly when. On his lamentable death which
