kaTha upanishad IV. 1

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Under the 18th sUtra in the pratyabhijnAhRdayam, kshemarAja, the Kashmir
Saiva author, quotes kaThavallI, IV. 1, and attributes this upanishad to
the atharvaveda (AtharvaNikopanishatsu kaThavallyAM
caturthavallI-prathama-mantre). This is probably the only Veda quotation
in this work; in general, Kashmir Saiva authors prefer the Agama/tantra
texts. The kAThaka samhitA and upanishad are generally considered to
belong to the kRshNa yajurveda. Is there an alternative tradition
attributing it to atharva, or is kshmerAja mistaken? Or is this another
indication of the mysterious connection between tAntric traditions and
atharvavedic tradiitons?

A sub-question to the above - kshemarAja's quotation reads AvRtta
cakshur amRtatvaM aSnan, whereas the standard reading is AvRtta cakshur
amRtatvaM icchan. The difference is not without significance. Is aSnan a
reasonably well-known variant?

Vidyasankar

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