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HI.1 BOOK 1
The first book opens (p.2) with a stereotyped introductory
setting for the text, that describes Bhairava岣� seated on Mount
Kail膩sa岣� surrounded by his customary retinue. 1 K峁�emar膩ja岣� first
supplies introductory verses paying homage to 艢iva岣� and his
master Abhinavagupta岣� and sketching his non-dual philosophy.
Then, in his commentary on the verses, which represents a
masterpiece of commentatorial ingenuity and over-interpretation,
he endeavors to demonstrate how they have encapsulated the
entire essential teaching of the rest of Svacchandatantram.? His
commentary decoding these verses offers: an excellent example of
the most important interpretative procedures that he applied
throughout his commentary; a useful summary of his
understanding of the nature of this text as revelation and its place
in tradition; and an outline of the tenets of his belief.
K峁�emar膩ja岣�, notably, considers these introductory verses the
enunciation of a specific intermediate figure, the scriptural
presenter. Thus, compelled by logic, he concedes, at least
minimally, the existence in the text of distinct compositional
layers. 3
After this hermeneutic tour de force, the text resumes
(pp. 8-9) with a request by the goddess that Bhairava岣� reveal a
1 All page references given in ( ) refer to the edition of
Svacchandatantram in The Kashmir Series of Texts and Studies.
2 V. infra section III.2 for the translation of this commentary.
3 K峁�emar膩ja岣�, accordingly, considers passages, such as the
opening verses, which speak of Bhairava岣� in the third person, to be
the work of secondary figures in the chain of scriptural
transmission. (V. bk.1, p.7, where he explicitly designates the first
three
and a half verses of the text as such:
鈥渟膩rdha艣lokatray膩tmakam tantr膩vat膩rakav膩kyametad-
boddhavyam.")