Philosophy of Pancaratras

The Pancaratra Agamas are an age old tradition widely in practice, the philosophy of which is not much discussed, but simply taken for granted.
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The Pancaratra Agamas are one of the most popular Agamas not only ancient but also widely prevalent particularly in the South India to begin with, and now very popular all over.
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Of course, Otto Sehrader wrote an introduction to the Pancaratra and Ahirbudya Samhitha in the early weeks on this century. Since then I do not think much has been written of the Philosophy of Pancaratra. It was Prof. Yamunacharya who suggested to me the subject and the title research. “The Philosophy of Pancaratra.” Some time during 1958 in one of his visits to Shimoga since then I took a keen interest in the subject. Prof. Yamunacharya now Director, Gandhi Peace Foundation, New Delhi has been a guide and I am very grateful to him for his kind help and guidance in writing this thesis.
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I have taken into account all Samhithas published so far whether in Devanagari or Tamil, Telugu scripts Mr. Sehrader has given a synopsis of the Samhitha list and according to his enumeration itself, the number of Samhithas runs to 210. Many more are yet to be discovered. I have not added any bibliographical note to the thesis is almost all the texts consulted are referred to in the body of thesis itself.
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I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Prof. P. Javaregowda of Mysore University for all the valuable encouragement and help he gave to me for research. I thank all of those who helped me in bringing this thesis successfully.