[Advaita-l] Sri Appayya Dikshitar cites copiously the Lakshmi Tantra (Pancharatra)

[V Subrahmanian]

In his Durga chandra kala stuti, a short work of 17 verses, with his own
commentary, Sri Appayya Dikshitar has alluded to several episodes that
describe the various forms the Para Shakti assumed in order to slay one or
the other asura such as Madhu-Kaitabha, Sumbha-Nisumbha...

In stating each episode, Dikshitar cites the Devi Mahatmyam, Hari Vamsha,
Varaha, Shiva Purana and many such texts. In the commentary to the 8th
verse, in order to substantiate many such episodes, he cites several dozens
of verses from the Lakshmi Tantra, a Pancharatra text.  After citing them,
he makes this observation: Even though the episodes were narrated by
Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, to Indra, she has done with her
identification,  abheda bhaavana, with Parvathi, and substantiates this
observation by citing from the Hari Vamsha from the words of Pradyumna
too.

It is also interesting to see Lakshmi saying 'I was born in the house of
Nanda Gopa, through Yashodha, as Sunandaa.' It is well known in the
Bhagavatam where Krishna instructs Yoga Maya to make the exchange of the
newborn babies and blesses her that she will be worshiped all over in many
names. We also know that there is a tradition of identifying Durga, the
consort of Shiva, with the sister of Krishna.


The entire work can be accessed here:

https://archive.org/details/DurgaChandrakalaStutiSvavyakhyaC/page/n11/mode/2up

Here is an English translation of just the verses:

https://mahaperiyavaa.blog/2014/10/01/sri-durga-chandrakala-sthotram/

In a video, Sri Mani Dravid Sastrigal has expounded a few shlokas, as a
sample, from this text in Tamil. If anyone can access the video on You
Tube, kindly provide the link.

regards
subbu