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1 SIDDHASENA DIVĀKARA
103
Siddhasena directed his attack. A mere similarity therefore between Nyāya-Bindu or Kavyālankāra, on the one hand and Siddha-Sena's Nyāyāvatāra on the other does not definitely lead us to the conclusion that Siddhasena was a contemporary of these authors. In the field of logic and other systems of philosophy, it is very difficult to determine as to who was the founder of a particular school of thought. All these different streams of thought were continuously flowing through India like mountain-streams, at one time slowly, and at another, flowing with great rapidity. Generally there arises in India, some mighty scholar who advocates one of these currents of thoughts and then this particular current of thought gains supreme strength for a time in the field of knowledge and other currents are naturally subordinated to it. To say that, a particular scholar was the original founder of the doctrine which he advocated is unhistorical, for even before that scholar lived, that particular doctrine was actually current in India. In the present case, looking to the striking resemblance between the works of Dharma-Kirti and Siddhasena the only definite inference we can draw is this that both of them had a common source in the ancient Indian logic.
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