Two medieval Sanskrit commentaries on the Kaulājñānanirṇaya still whisper through manuscript collections:

• Jñānanirṇaya-vṛtti by Nityānātha (c. 17th century, Bengal)
A concise gloss that unpacks each aphorism in light of the Kula lineage, tracing ritual snippets back to their root tantras. It often leans on local oral traditions, giving a rare window into how Kaula practices were actually carried out in eastern India.

• Jñānanirṇaya-vivaraṇa by Śrīkaṇṭha (late 18th century, Orissa)
More elaborate, this vivaraṇa interweaves detailed ritual diagrams with cosmological exegesis. A few surviving palm-leaf manuscripts even include marginal notes by later priests, hinting at a living tradition that kept evolving.

Beyond these two core works, a handful of lesser-known glosses pop up in regional archives:

• Kaulājñānanirṇaya-ṭīkā attributed to Vāmana (c. 19th century, Ceylon)
Shorter than its predecessors, it’s mostly a practical handbook—recipes for sacred substances, mantra meters and the odd mnemonic verse.

• Tibetan paraphrase with commentary in the Tengyur (17th century), traditionally ascribed to Panchen Sonam Dragpa
Translating the Kaulājñānanirṇaya into Tibetan had its own spin: emphasis on deity yoga and visualizations, neatly dovetailing with the Rime movement’s interest in non-sectarian tantra.

Recent decades have seen fresh life breathed into these texts:

• A 2024 digital critical edition by the Muktabodha Foundation
Offers facsimiles of key manuscripts alongside a new English commentary by Natubhai Shah, peppered with cross-references to contemporaneous Saiva tantras.

• An upcoming volume (2025) from the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
Edited by Alexis Sanderson, it promises a line-by-line translation with notes on linguistic quirks and ritual variants still in use at Kerala’s tantric shrines.

Peeling back these layers of commentary feels like tracing concentric circles on a pond—each gloss throws its own pebble, and the ripples keep opening up fresh vistas on an age-old esoteric manual.