NIDHIS

[R.Mayer at ukc.ac.uk]

There is a mass of refertence to nidhi in magical literature; in magical
literature, discovery of nidhi has its own distinctive lore, and is
not simply subsumed under the rubric of such standard categories as
aakars.an.a, the attracting of women or wealth. On the contrary, nidhi-
dars/ana or nidhaanalaabha is a distinct category. One entire text,
the Nidhidars/ana, by Raama Vaajapeyin, still survives as a study of
this topic and nothing other. There are numerous references to discovering
nidhi in the Mahaabhaarata, the Saamavidhaana Braahman.a, the AV-paris/is.t.aan.i,
the S/aktisam.gama Tantra, the Siddhanaagaarjunakaks.aput.a, the
Jayadrathayaamala, the Kaamaratna, and so on and so forth: in short,
accross a wide spectrum. These texts describe saadhana rites to recover
nidhi, methods of finding their locations, propitiations of the
goddess Nidhiis/varii (Kubera's mummy), and so forth.
But what I can not fathom is the context and import of the
categories nidhi and nidhipaa as mentioned in the Gr.hyasuutras and
the Kaus/ikasuutra. They do not seem to be quite the same as the
magical understanding of nidhi.
Thanks for your help, Alan.
Rob