Acknowledgement

इमं स्वलेखं रचितं सवन्दनं चविक्षसे वै शिवमार्गभागिने |
बुधाय देवव्रतसेनशर्मणे निवेदयन्नन्दति पार्थसारथिः ||

imaṃ svalekhaṃ racitaṃ savandanaṃ cavikṣase vai śivamārgabhāgine |
budhāya devavratasenaśarmaṇe nivedayannandati pārthasārathiḥ ||

My first and foremost acknowledgement for the execution of this dissertation goes to my respectful supervisor Prof. Narottam Senapati who always helped me in every respect. I feel proud for having such a great scholar as my supervisor.

I also express my gratitude and heartfelt thanks to all the professors of the Department of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit of Visva Bharati. A special mention must be made of Prof. Arun Ranjan Mishra who was the departmental head when I was admitted to this department. He always made me aware about the official proceedings. I am also grateful to Prof. Lalita Chakraborty who was instrumental in introducing me to Prof. Debabrata Sensharma who enriched me with his wide knowledge. I also thank Prof. Arun Kumar Mondal who advised me in my pre-submission stage, Dr. Gargi Bhattacharya and Dr. Sanjoy Mandal for their advice. Above all I was grateful to Prof. Niranjan Jena, the departmental head, as he quickened every official work and encouraged me at every stage.

I thank Prof. Rajnish Misra of JNU who gave me important advices regarding my thesis, and Prof. Santosh Kumar Shukla of JNU too, for his advices. I also thank Prof. Tapan Shankar Bhattacharya and Prof. Kakali Ghosh for their advices.

Late Prof. Debabrata Sensharma made me study the Shaivite philosophy of Kashmir, gave me his own manuscript after a learned lecture and inspired me to such an extent that made me work out this thesis. I humbly acknowledge his contribution.

I also thank Dr. Chandan Kumar Chakraborty, the renowned retired Professor and Ex-Head of the Department of Sanskrit in Tripura University. It would not have been possible to present this thesis in its current shape without his magnanimous help specially in the area of various translation which I encountered while writing. Like loving guardians he and his wife Dr. Anita Chakraborty always stood by me and kept my spirit up. I am grateful to them.

I thank my departmental colleague and sister Ms. Jay Saha for spending her valuable time helping me in my research work. Apart from that I also thank Dr. Debaraj Panigrahi, Assistant Professor, Tripura University, for his kind help in my work place which helped me to carry on with my work smoothly. Prof. Biswapati Ray, Retired Senior Professor of this department, made me enlightened about many difficult topics of philosophy, I am very grateful to him.

I thank Prof Goodall, Dr. Boris Marjanovic, Dr. Mrinal Kaul, Dr. Ben Williams and other scholars who enriched me with knowledge and facts of Shaivaite philosophy in different workshops.

I thank Dr. Biswajit Mondal, Dr. Bikash Sardar, Dr. Tanmoy De and Mr. Soumik Bhattacharya who helped me in the official works at Visva-Bharati during my research work.

My love and gratitude go to my elders and friends who kept my spirit up at the time of my operation and helped me continue with my research work.

They are Dr. Rajeev Kumar Jha, Sri Jahar Saha, Dr. Susmita Basu, Deepro Chakraborty, Dr. Soham Pain, Shilpi Sarkar, Anirban Das, Dr. Debabrata Baidya, Rajarshi Naskar, Dr. Arindam Mondal, Ganesh Khatua, Vivek Karmakar, Sudipta Munshi, Swastik Banerjee and others.

Finally, I would like to express my respect and love for my Grandparents Sri Gaur Chandra Sarkar and Smt. Shefali Sarkar and Late Dharani Kanta Sil and Late Atul Bala Sil. Above all my lovely mother Parna Sil, my father Shyamal Kumar Sil, father-in law Nitai Ch. Dutta, mother-in-law Mamoni Dutta, Ruksmini Dutta and my brothers Pratik Sil, Prantik Sil have been in my heart through this difficult journey and all of my life’s endeavors.

No thanks is enough for my wife, Subhadra Dutta who is also my best friend for bearing with me all the joys and pains of this adventures journey with equal zest. She is also my greatest critic and my go to person whenever I needed support and poise at times of annoyance.