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INTRODUCTION"
The Introduction to the present work is given under three divisions : 1. The material available for the present volume and its critical
utilisation, 2. The authors and their age, and 3. Historical and Philosophical discussion of the ideas embodied
in the original text, Siddhivini ścaya of Akalarika and its tīkā
by Anantavirya. The medieval period of Indian Philosophy has to be accredited for producing the epoch-making philosophers like Kumārila, the great exponent of Mimāṁsā, Dharmakirti, the brilliant logician of Buddhism, and Akalarka, the very pinnacle of logical acumen and philosophical wisdom. Akalañka was the most original interpreter of Jaina epistemology and he built a system of Nyāya which later came to be known as Akalarka-nyāya.
In the present volume, Akalarika's Siddhivini scaya' (SV) with vrtti (SVV) of the author himself and Siddhiviniscaya-tīkā (SVT) of Anantavirya are published for the first time with the help of a single manuscript, and that too has been only available for SVT, out of which the other two, namely, the SV and SVV have been reconstructed.
1. THE MATERIAL FOR THE EDITION 1. The Ms. of Siddhiviniscaya-tika :
The Ms. of the Siddhivini ścaya-ţikā was found out from Kodāyagrāma in Cutch, in 1926, by the revered Pt. Sukhalalji while he was editing Sanmati Tarka. Panditji has given some quotations from the SVT in his edition of Sanmati Tarka, in the foot-notes.
Unfortunately, the Ms. of SVT is full of mistakes, firstly because some of the letters are disfigured due to the leaves having got stuck up, and secondly perhaps because the original Ms. from which the one under reference is copied, was written in padimātrā style and the copyist being
1 The English Introduction gives only the gist of Hindi Intro. The readers are,
therefore, requested to consult the Hindi Intro, for detailed discussions. 2 See Hindi Intro. p. 2.
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