योगतारावली (आदि शङ्कराचार्य - अमनस्क दशा, नादानुसन्धान एवं राजयोग रहस्य सटीक)

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The authorship of the work is usually ascribed to the great
Advaita teacher Śaṅkarācārya. There are however strong grounds
to hold that this ascription is not beyond doubt. The work had
not been commented on by any of the direct or indirect disciples of
Śaṅkarācārya, nor has it been commented on by any teacher of minor
yoga schools. Moreover the work does not seem to have been
quoted by any teacher who lived before the fifteenth century. All
these tend to show that the work belongs to a much later date. It
is quite reasonable to hold that the work was composed by one
of these later Śaṅkarācāryas who were proficient in Haṭha and
Rāja yogas.
There is a difficulty in accepting this view also, for the
work was ascribed to Nandikeśvara by Śivānanda ( in his
Yogacintāmaṇi, p. 15 ), one of the authorities on yoga. It is
difficult to explain this change in authorship. Even if we accept
the authorship of Nandikeśvara, it is difficult to identify him.
Historically it is impossible to take this Nandikeśvara as the
same as the Puranic Nandin or Nandikeśvara ( the son of the
sage Śilāda ), who assumed a daiva śarīra ( divine body )
through the grace of Śiva. A Nandikeśvara is said to have
composed a commentary ( in verse ) on the fourteen Pratyāhāra
sūtras of Paninian grammar. The identification of these two
Nandikeśvaras is still to be proved.
It is a pity that the present work has no ancient Sanskrit
commentary. There are, however, a few translations and commen-
taries in Hindi and Bengali. These commentaries neither try to
determine the intended importe of the important expressions of
the text, nor take into consideration the variant readings found in
the different printed editions of the text. Though we have tried to