Spanda-Karikas

Jaideva Singh (1893-1986), was a great scholar of musicology, philosophy, and Sanskrit. Former principal of Y.d. College. Lakhimpur Kheri was the Chief Producer at All India Radio, and also served as Chairman of U.P. Sangit Natak Academymi. In 1974, he was conferred Padma Bhushan from the Government of India.
The Spandakarikas, a collection of verses, serve as a commentary on the Siva Sutras. Saivagama says that the divine consciousness does not consist of inert, cold intellection. It is active, dynamic, throbbing full of life, and creative pulsation. Siva-sutras emphasizes the prakasa side of the divine. In Spandakarikas it is the vimarsa side that is highlighted. These two books together give an integrated view of Saiva philosophy. Ksemaraja wrote a commentary on Spandakarikas, called Spanda-nirnaya. Ksemaraja is fond of long, windy sentences and sesquipedalian compounds. However, he is extremely knowledgeable about the subject and cannot be ignored. The translator tried to make both the karikas as well as the Spanda­nirnaya commentary readable. Each verse (karika) is presented in both Roman and Devanagari scripts, with an English translation. The commentary in Sanskrit by Ksemaraja follows. An English translation follows the commentary. Numerous notes are then made on technical and important words. The author then gives a running description of each karika.