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Synopsis Sharadatilaka is the essence of the Tantras, the first cause for the attainment of Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha (religious merit, wealth, desire, and liberation). In 25 chapters the celebrated author – Lakshmana Deshikendra – deals with the theory and practice of Tantrik worship. It is said that Lakshmana was compassion for men who wanted to know about all the different forms of worship, but could not do so by reason of the voluminousness of the different Tantras, each dealing with a single form of worship and because of the abstruse character of the same. The commentary on the Sharada gives an adequate idea of not only the greatness of the spiritual culture of India but shows the progress that had been made in every sphere of human activity. In expounding the text the Commetator – Raghava – cites passages not only from the Mantrashastra alone, but has drawn his materials from mathematical and astrological works, the Ayurveda, the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Puranas and the Samhitas, the Shrauta Sutras and the Grihya Sutras, the Brahmanas and the Shulvashastras, the Darshanas, the Chhandas, the Pancharatras, and a whole host of other authorities.