The Heart of the Yogini

Catalogues for the Sarasvati Bhavan Library Varanasi, the Oriental Institute Vadodara, the Rajasthan Oriental Research Institute Udaipur branch, and the Hindu University have been published. Detailed information on these manuscripts can be obtained based on the numbers provided above. In almost every library in India, one or two manuscripts of these two texts can be found. We regret that we could neither obtain information about them nor utilize them.

The Present Edition

The aforementioned three editions were primarily based on the Ka (Shankarmath) manuscript, whereas in this present edition, the text has been revised based on the Kha and Jha manuscripts. For instance, except for the quotation from Kāmakalāvilāsa, in all other places, the reading 'asmadukta' stated by us has been kept in place of 'asmad-gurukta' stated by our guru, because all these statements are from texts authored by Amritananda. To preserve the form of the first edition as much as possible, the reading of the Ka manuscript has been retained in the original text if it contained no errors, and variants from other manuscripts are provided in the footnotes. The Ka manuscript sometimes contains additional text. If this is not found in any other manuscript, it is shown in small letters within parentheses. In some places, it has been removed entirely. For example, in the explanation of 2.56, only one verse has been kept in place of four. The 'Vāmakeśvaratantra' reading in the colophon of the Chakrasanketa has also been removed, as it contradicts the explanation on page 106. We will consider this later. Similarly, the part of the commentary for 2.60 has been left in the main commentary text, but the term 'yākinī' has been removed. For this, see the note on page 190. Here, 3.30 should be read instead of 3.32. In the Nitya-ṣoḍaśikārṇava (3.19-20) as well, only six Yoginis are described. To resolve such problems, notes have been provided in various places. For example, for the explanation of the eight-fold anāhata nāda unstruck sound based on the nine sounds, see the first note on pages 123 and 193.

The text of the Kha manuscript is supported by the majority of the manuscripts, and their revision?