A list of Pāśupata(More specifically,Lākula) ritual texts

 

512px-Lakulisa

Image from Wikimedia Commons

This is extracted from one of Alexis Sanderson’s articles

A lot of Pāśupata Śāstras existed(apart from the famous sutra) which had the suffix -pramāṇa. The Pramāṇas dealing with ritual were formulated by Musalendra based on the Hṛdayapramāṇa.They are:

(1)Purakalpapramāṇa
(2)Kanakapramāṇa
(3)Śālapramāṇa
(4)Niruttarapramāṇa
(5)Viśvapramāṇa
(6)Prapañcapramāṇa

The Hṛdayapramāṇa itself was a part of a set of ‘pramāṇa’śastras,and this second set was concerned with gnosis(and not ritual) and were deemed to be superior śāstras. They were:

(1)Pañcārtha pramāṇa
(2)Guhya pramāṇa
(3)Rudrāṅkuśa pramāṇa
(4)Hṛdaya pramāṇa
(5)Lakṣaṇa pramāṇa
(6)Vyūha pramāṇa
(7)Ākarṣa pramāṇa
(8)Ādarśa pramāṇa

This listing of Pāśupata śāstras is done by Kṣemarāja who notes the various Rudras who take on the names of these śāstras.

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