From Ekachalia Sasana, a village on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, complete and fairly correct palm-leaf manuscripts of Atharva Veda in its Pippalada recension were located more than 65 years back. These were preserved by few families as their living tradition. Several discoveries of Atharva Veda manuscripts were also made from other locations in Odisha, underlining the prevalence and practice of Atharva Veda as family tradition in Odisha.

This version of Ksurika Upanishad in Odiya script is taken from a palm leaf manuscript preserved at Parija library of Utkal University, Bhubaneswar. The person, who, by chance, stumbled across this precious text, is born to a family following Sama Veda tradition in a village adjacent to Ekachalia Sasana. In his early life, he was witness to adherents of both traditions meeting regularly to discuss on their respective conventions and practices. These interactions imbibed the seed of enquiry to propel him searching for and experimenting with different oral traditions of indigenously embedded tacit knowledge after he learnt the basics from elders of his family tradition.

Earlier, a collection of Upanishads in palm leaf manuscript written in Telegu script was found from Puri in which Kshurika Upanishad formed a part. The Odiya script version of this Upanishad is available in a similar palm-leaf manuscript along with other texts.

It is interesting to note that a number of scholars attribute Kshurika Upanishad’s link to Atharva Veda even as few scholars link this Upanishad to Krishna Yajuveda.  Availability of Kshurika Upanishad and Atharva Veda from same region indicates that certain section of people of this region had awareness of the knowledge as enumerated in Kshurika Upanishad. It was practiced most probably by those, who followed the living masters’ tradition of Atharva Veda.

Kshurika means razor. Use of this word metaphorically signifies how to achieve razor sharp concentration by cutting links with the surrounding external frictions and by focusing within self. The knife in this case is a sharp mind having the ability to discern things and knowing the right actions and right knowledge. The text includes sections on Yoga postures, breath exercises and withdrawal of senses from outside to inside as a means to rinse the body and mind.