History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c92.246

v7.c92.246

Dīkṣā is treated elaborately in some of the Tantras such as Prapañcasāra (V and VI), Kulārṇava (14. 39 ff), Śāradātilaka (4th paṭala), Nityotsava (pp. 4–10), Jñānārṇava (24th paṭala), Viṣṇusaṁhitā (X), Mahānirvāṇa (X. 112–119) and in Liṅgapurāṇa (II. 21). The Nirṇaysāgara Press brought out an edition (in 1935) of a work called Dīkṣāprakāśikā of Viṣṇubhaṭṭa, pupil of Satyānandanātha, composed in śaka 1719 (1797 A. D.). Almost all of them derive¹⁸²⁵ the word from the root ‘*dā*’ (to give) and ‘*kṣi*’ to destroy, in various ways. The Kulārṇava defines it as ‘the good call it dīkṣā because it confers a divine (holy) state and wipes off all sins, thereby freeing a man from the bondage of saṁsāra’; the Śāradātilaka states ‘since it confers divine knowledge and destroys sins it is named dīkṣā by the teachers that know the Tantras’