The Newar Buddhist manuscript, Śārdūlakarṇāvadāna, no. 106 of the Kyoto University Library, was copied by a scribe named Ṣaḍānanda in A.D. 1923. Another ms., Śiṣyalekhadharmakāvya, no. 389 of the Tokyo University Library, was copied in 1912. The scribe, Ṣaḍānanda, introduced himself as “an inhabitant at Mahābauddha temple in Patan and awarded the title of Vajrācārya (by the Non-Newar Government)”. These two mss. are written in the Devanāgarī script.
Another two mss, Sapādalakṣā Mahāpratyaṅgirā and Kālacakratantra, no. 111 and no. 18 of the Kyoto University Library, were copied in 1901 and 1907 respectively in the Newari script by Ṣaḍabhijñānanda from Mahābauddha.
During the first half of his life, Ṣaḍabhijñānanda copied some mss. in the Newari script. But after gaining possession of the Vajrācārya title, he copied mss. in the Devanāgarī script under the name of Ṣaḍānanda. These changes have been linked to the Non-Newar Government’s policy of rejecting the Newar culture. Unlike many Newar scribes, he acted in line with that policy.
