Kaula

This is whom abhinavagupta the Kashmirian mantravAdin call machChanda-vibhu or the siddha matsyendra who taught the kaula tantra in the current tradition. The kaula tradition holds that originally there were 12 vidyeshvara-s: not all being gods or emanations of rudra unlike in the kaula tradition the vidyeshvara-s are:

1. viShNu
2. rudra
3. brahman
4. soma
5. kubera
6. nandin
7. skanda
8. indra
9. vivasvAn
10. yama
11. manmatha
12. manu.

These heard the primal kula-vidya from kAmashiva. The 3 human vidyeshvara-s who then obtained it from the above who constitute to divyaugha are 1 agastya maitrAvaruNi 2 lopAmudrA vaidarbhi and 3 durvAsas Atreya. Some also count the 4th rAma bhArgava. These constitute the vipraugha. From them it was heard in each yuga by one of the 4 siddha-s known as the yuganAtha-s and their wives who were also their kulA~NganA-s: 1 khagendranAtha and vijAhutI 2 kUrmanAtha and ma~NgalAjyotI 3 meShanAtha and kAmA~NgA 4 matsyendranAtha and ko~NkAnA or kuMkumAmbA, with the last being of our yuga. These are founders of the mAnavaugha. khagendra and his wife initiated vimala and sushobha; kUrma and ma~NgalA initiated ajita and vijita; meSha and his wife initiated khakulanAtha who initiated a lineage of 64 and further siddha-s. Finally it is said that the kaula-tantra-s promulgated by these teachers was thrown into the sea by skanda. They were recovered by the fisherman matsyendra from the belly of a giant fish. He and ko~NkaNA had 6 sons bhadra, amarapAda, mahendra, khagendra-II, mahIdhara, guDikanAtha who continued the lineage by founding 6 pITha-s in 6