Nyayasiddhantadipa

SR No.: 002636
Original Sutra Author: Shashadhar
Author: Bimal Krishna Matilal
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1976
Total Pages: 270
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Philosophy
File Size: 15 MB

Page 20

INTRODUCTION
11
an improvement on that of Saśadbara. Thus, we should have no doubt about the fact that Sasadhara preceded Gangesa. Our next problem should be to ascertain an approximate date of Sasadhara,
MM. S. C. Vidyabhusana in his History of Indian Logic, Calcutta University, 1921, gave a brief account of Sasadhara and NSD based on his examination of a manuscript of NSD in the possession of MM, Vindhyeswari Prasad Dwivedin. This account is interesting although it is somewhat outdated and contains some inconsistent remarks regarding the date of Sasadhara and NSD. I quote below a few lines from this book :
"Sasadhara's Nyaya-Siddhanta-dipa (about 1300 A. D.) is important work of this kind."
29. SASADHARA
(ABOUT 1125 A. D.)
Sasadhara, styled Mahopadhyaya Sasadhara, is reputed to have been a native of Mithila. The time in which he flourished is not definitely known. Probably he flourished before Gangeśa and after Udayana whose words be quotes under the designation of kecit (some). Sasadhara and Manidhara were, according to a Bengali tradition, two logicians, whose definitions of vyapti (invariable concomitance) were criticized by Gangesa Upadhyaya in the 12th century A.D., under the title of Simha-vyaghrokta-laksana or definitions as given by "the Lion" and "the Tiger." In reality it was the Jaina logicians, Ananda Suri and Amaracandra Sarl, who were called the Lion (Simha) and the Tiger (uyaghra), not Sasadhara and Manidhara. According, however, to the Bengali tradition, Saśadhara lived in the 12th century AD." p. 396.
It is obvious that if Śaśadhara lived in about 1125 A. D., the NSD could not have been written in about 1300 A. D. Vidyabhusana followed apparently a Bengali tradition in assigning 1125 A. D. as Saśadhara's date. But he did not give his reasons for believing that the NSD was written in about 1300 A.D. Professor D.C. Bhattacharya was highly critical of Vidyabhusana's suggestion about the two Jaina logicians, Ananda Sari and Amaracandra Süri, which we shall discuss below.
Pandit Dhundhiraj Sastri wrote in his Sanskrit Introduction to the 1924 edition of NSD as follows: (I translate :)
"This Sasadhara, it is heard (śruyate), belonged to Maunasa gotra. He was the son of Dharanidhara, and grandson of Maheśvara Pandita. Pitthvidharacarya was his brother, He must have flourished later than