Kaulavali-Nirnayah of Jñanananda Paramaham

“The author of this compilation is Jnanananda Paramahamsa about whom nothing else is known. His name so far as can be ascertained is not connected with any other book. The Kaulavali is highly esteemed by Sadhakas of the Kaula Sampradaya. Kaulikarchandipika is another book of this type, but does not go into details as does this, though it deals with a few matters not touched upon by Jnanananda. Manuscripts of the Kaulavali are very difficult to obtain, as Sadhakas are unwilling to part with it. R. M. Chattopadhyaya says that he had only one manuscript on which he based his publication of the text. Through the kind intervention of Professor Roy Chaudhuri, son of the late Svami Vimalananda, the loan has been obtained of a manuscript in the possession of a Kaula family of Murshidabad. The text now published is based on the Murshidabad manuscript though Chattopadhyaya’s text has been consulted and has been of use in spite of its deficiencies. The Editors have had further the advantage of being able to consult original texts ‘from published and unpublished Tantras and have thus been enabled to give the correct reading in several places.

In the beginning of the first Chapter the author cites the names of the Tantras from which he has drawn his materials. They are almost all well-known though some of them are still unpublished”.
Excerpt from Arthur Avalon’s Introduction