Sri Tantralokah Chapter One - Volume I ((Sanskrit Text, Transliteration, English Translation and Notes))

May the light (or Parama Siva, Anuttra), who is the creator of iccha, jnana and kriya by dint of His Sakti, whose reflection, this world is the grand splendour of his own Power, who is immanent and transcendent as well, who is inspired me to translate this work in another version, wipe out my ignorance, innate and intellectual, and transform my jiva bhava into Siva Bhava through re-cognition. This is the anugraha of Parama Siva and my Guru that my heart is now the lotus-seat where rests my mother, Sarasvati, the Citpratibha Sakti. I bow down to my father, Parama Siva with my mother and my great Guru who are now the splendors of my lotus heart.

Mortaly and immortaly, that is the grace of Pt. Isvara Candra Vidyasagara, M.M. Pt. Gopinatha Kaviraja, Svami Laksmana Ju, J. Krsnamurti, Thakura Jaideva Singh and my revered Guruji Pt. Vraja Vallabha Dvivedi, and my great Guru Rangama, that I have inspired to translate the magnum opus of my manasa Guru Sri Abhinava Gupta, the Tantraloka from Sanskrit to English. My another respected teacher Sri Navjivan Rastogi, also inspired and informed me that Italian Translation of this work by R. Gnoali and English translation of first three ahnikas by Ira Bajpai (not yet published) have been completed already. I am grateful to all of them and pay my humble regards. I do acknowledge the initiative of my friend Sri Dilip Jaiswal (the owner of Indica Books) who constantly encouraged for this work with my other soul friends. Thanks. Kindly bless me for this effort so that I can complete the whole work.

For this Translation, the Sanskrit text is selected from. 'The Kashmir Series of Text & Studies' (no.23 to no.58, ahnika one to ahnika thirty seven), edited with notes by Mahamahopadhyaya Pandit Mukund Ram Shastri and Pt. Madhusudan Kaul Shastri, Printed at the Indian Press, Allahabad and 'Nirnaya Sagar' Press, Bombay, Published in 1918, 1933 respectively. We have three other versions of the same work available in the market but, (1) we do not find verse 76 (of ahnika one) in the precept pub. From Chowkhamba Vidyabhawan, Varanasi 2002, (2) we don't find verse 58 (of ahnika one) in the precept pub. By Acharya Krisnanand Sagar, Gujrat, 1984 and (3) this is one complete verse:
Visvakrtitvaccidcittadvaicitryavabhasakah,
tato' sya bahurupatvamuktam diksottaradike.
But in the precept pub, from Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi, 1992, 2000, this verse is presented in two verses-verse 61 and verse 62, with two doubtful verses, verse 56 and verse 223.

Gautam Chatterjee, well-known writer, has a lineage of Pt. Ishvara Chandra Vidyasagar, with deep Sanskrit Tradition and has been a close associate of Thakur Jaidev Singh. His two books (collection of plays), related to Kashmir Shaivism, have already been published. At present, working on the inter-influence of Indian Clasical Music and Agam. 'Re-cognition of an Actor' is his forthcoming book.