Agama Shastra Samhita

As already stated earlier in these blogs, the collection of shastra, aphorisms, now in prints or manuscript states are virtually, the spoken words of God manifest as Jnyanis, Rishis, yogin or the Seers (mantra drushtara). The intuitional knowledge is the real knowledge, first hand knowledge obtained from divine sources (anahata dhvani heard from parame vyoman/Akash vani). These aphorisms spread over hundred of samhita are now under scrutiny by some renown scholars abroad! Thousands of these manuscripts have been taken away by the British during their Rule and some are in British Library, London and some are in Tanjavoor, Adyar, Jammu, Kathmandu, Mysore, etc. It is said that the most prominent ones (about eleven or so) that are available are in Telugu and the translations are not trustworthy. The Samhitas attributed to Sage Narada found in Bengal is supposed to be spurious. The Ahirbudhnya, Jayakhya, Sattvata are supposed to be good, but need proper editing; but, where are the scholars well versed in these, they ask? The very terms- ahir and budhnya make it a weird head and tail of what? "Is it the head and tail of a snake or Shiva or Vishnu or Sudarshana?" Lakshmi tantra is extremely tough and seems very abstract at places. There mantra, tantra, and yantra, Fine art, sculpture art, shilpa kala, aesthetics as well as temple architecture in these! The mantras are so numerous that run into millions! Some are mantra shastra and Yoga shastra par excellence! The modern pundits cannot make head or tail of these scriptures. Prof Schrader, Curator of Adyar Library, during the British days, has written Introduction tp Pancharatra with  special reference to the Ahirbudhnya, that too only a note on the contents of the Samhita. This is enough for an introduction. Some details are available in Vol. III of the Introduction to Indian Philosophy, by Surendranath Dasgupta, pub. MLBD. 

   There is a doubt as to the antiquity of these scriptures and some scholars are of the view that these are as age old as the universe! since the very origin of the universe is deliberated here! Further, These names such as Narayana, Vasudeva, Samkarshana, lakshmi, Shiva, Sudarshana, etc are so confusing that we cannot understand whether they are Gods, or Rishi, or just characters depicted as humans turned Gods? many of these are also symbolic and do exist in the form of signs,and symbols, insignia like wheels, conches, danda (Rod), or a mase or lotus!
  A brief note on the available Samhita will be given here later.