The collection of songs edited in the present volume possesses a twofold interest. Composed so long ago as the fourteenth century AD, it claims the attention not only of the philologist as the oldest known specimen of the Kâshmîrî language, but also, and still more, that of the student of religions.
In ancient times, the religious system based on Saiva Yôga was the object of much study amongst the learned men of Kashmir. From that remote corner of North-Western India their teaching influenced the whole peninsula,—so much so that we even read that Râmânuja, the leader of a rival Vaisnava belief, felt compelled to travel from distant Madras to Kashmîr, with the special object of combating the hostile creed at its fountain head. There is an imposing mass of Kashmir OEaiva literature still extant. Much of it has been published in the original Sanskrit, and more than one English work has been devoted to it. |
