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THE NYAYASŪTRA COMMENTARIAL TRADITION
calabhūmi.65 Born in a family of Karmamimämsakas,66 he achieved a high position at the court of Mithila owing to his expertise in Dharmasastra." Basing himself on the Mithila panji-s, introduced by the Karnata ruler Harasimhadeva in 1324, Dineshchandra Bhattacharya provides us with further details as to Vacaspati's personal and scholarly network.68 He was from the Samauli branch of a family belonging to the Vatsyagotra, with Palli as their mulagrāma, and related by his fourth wife of the famous Sodarapura family to another important Naiyayika of the fifteenth century, Sankara Miśra,70 while his first two wives linked him with the royal family." One of Vacaspati's granddaughters was married to Bhavanatha, the son of Sucikara Upadhyaya of the Kuñjapalli (Kujauli) family of Bhakharauli (Bhaura);72 Śucikara, a pupil of the illustrious Naiyayika and commentator on the Tattvacintamani Jayadeva alias Pakṣadhara Miśra (related to Sankara Miśra, who was a paternal uncle [pitrvya] of his, and thus also a member of the Sodarapura family) was the teacher of Maheśa Thakkura, the founder of the Darbhanga Raj in 1556/1557 and author of a celebrated commentary on Pakṣadhara's Aloka on the Tattvacintamani."
75
65 Cf. Bhattacharya (1947: 301-303, 1958: 148-149) on the evidence of the introduction to Vacaspati's Nyayaratnaprakasa, a commentary on Manikantha's Nyayaratna.
66 Cf. the final verse of his Krtyapradipa quoted by Bhattacharya (1947: 295, 1958: 143): vamise jätaḥ kaluşarahite karmamimämsakānām anvīkṣāyām gurukaruṇaya labdhatattyävabodhahḥ | śrīmän vācaspatir aham iha pritaye punyabhājām natvā natvā kamalanayanam krtyadipam tanomi //. 67 In the colophons to the Pitrbhaktitarangini (cf. Chakravarti, 1915b: 429; Bhattacharya, 1958: 143; Kane, 1975: 851, n. 1288) and Sudrāçāracintamani (cf. Kane, 1975: 851) Vacaspati is called sakalapanditamandaliśiromani and parişad (advisor in difficult legal points) to the two kings; in the Dvaitanirnaya we find the epithet nikhilatantravid (cf. Bhattacharya, op. cit., 157).
68 Cf. Bhattacharya (1958: 157).
69 On the illustrious Sodarapura family cf. Mishra (1966: 400-401).
70 This wife was a cousin (pitṛvyaputri) of Sankara Miśra (cf. also Mishra, 1966: 290).
7 His first wife's great-great-grandfather was Raya Bhogisvara (cf. Chakravarti, 1915b: 415-416), his second wife's father was the son of the daughter of Bhogisvara's younger brother Bhaveśvara (Bhaveśa, Bhavasimha), the first ruler over all of Mithila (cf. Chakravarti, 1915b: 417); cf. Bhattacharya (1958: 156-157) and Mishra (1966: 289).
72 Cf. also Mishra (1966: 358).
73 Cf. Bhattacharya (1958: 125-126).
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On Mahesa Thakkura, the first ruler of the Khandavala dynasty, cf. Bhattacharya (1958: 172-176) and Mishra (1966: 355-361). The Darpana was an early work of his