The land which once was enchanted with mantras of four vedas ( rigveda shAkal ,yajurveda kAthaka ,sAmaveda kauThuma and atharvaveda paippalAda shAkhA ), 84 Agamas and many sAkta tantras is barren from sound of namakaM and chamakaM.Ancestors of present kashmIrI pandits were chaturvedIs, with time only largest following shAkhA( i.e. kAthaka shAkhA with laugAkshI sutra ) remain preserved.Due to decline in tradition all groups of kashmIrI brAhman adopted it . As for as my knowledge one of such group have bhava-kapishThala gotra and they are originally follower of kapishThala shAkhA but lately adopted kaThaka shAkhA .Today land of kashmIra lacks even a single samhitA pAthI of kaThaka shAkhA .Due to practical use only rituals and ritual manuals of kaThaka shAkhA remain preserved .Unfortunately due scarcity of time, sake of bred and butter , malecchAs and lost interest this rituals and ritual manuals ( prayoga pustakas ) are also dying . As told to me by an old kashmIrI priest on telephonic conversation ” from last 150 years rituals and ritual manuals are continuously getting shortened , Those manual that we were taught was about 90-100 pages and our forefather’s handwritten manuscripts were about 150-200 pages ,different ritualas take 4-5 hours. Now rituals manuals are shortened to 30-45 pages and don’t consume much time ( only about 1:30 to 2 hous ) , the rituals which previously performed for 40 days are now performed for 15 days .”
In such transition period ( where shortening of prayoga pustaka was taking place ) kAThakas evolved a laghu rUdra suktA which was an easy substitute to bulky rUdraM .In case of time’s devil , generally (in north ) first sixteen mantras of namakaM are recited .Peculiarly kAThakas evolved a unique laghu rUdra sukta.
A pseudo dhyAna mantra is recited in beginning by kAthakas and then last 11 mantras of namakaM with two additional mantras , first of them is tvarita rUdra mantra and second is vedic aghor mantra , are recited .This 14 mantras in total makes laghu rUdra sukta.( 14 mantras flashes back my memory to 14 mantramaheshvaras in trika system )
Footnotes
1) Aghor mantra have pAtha bheda from standard mantra.
Source
Ritual manual of satIsara vidvAns
६(︶︿︶)३
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