Kaulasūtra

After some more updates to the XeTeX code I at last started work on the BORI MS (445 of 1875–6) of the Kaulasūtras. It is evidently a Kashmirian MS from Jammu, written in the blocky bold script (what some people call “Jammu” nāgarī) common in so many transcripts from Śāradā. The scribe seems to have been extremely conscientious and records lacunae faithfully.

As Sanderson had noted the scribes exemplar was obviously already old and damaged, see end of line one:

atha kaulasūtrāntargatāni kāni cit sūtrāṇi likhyante / ādarśachinnabhinnatvāt / “Now some sūtras included in the Kaulasūtras are being written. Because the exemplar is torn and broken.”

So far no further manuscript of these sūtras has been discovered and it seems that the Kashmirian Śāradā source exemplar is gone for ever. How lucky we are to have at least these five folios!