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KARIN PREISENDANZ.
by lazy-minded people. 134 Visvanātha Pancānana, the youngest son in the family, 135 was a student of his father Vidyānivāsa Bhattācārya, who is honoured by him in one of the intcoductory verses of the Nyāyasūtravrtti, 136 and regularly mentioned in the intermediate and final colophons of the manuscripts of this work. Quite a number of details are known about Vidyānivāsa Bhattācārya whom Dineshchandra Bhattacharya calls 'the leader of Bengali scholars in Benares for a long time': he was defeated in a dispute with the Mīmāmsaka Nārāyaṇa Bhatta of the Gādhi family (cf. above, p. 77) 37 on the occasion of a śrāddha ceremony in Todarmall's house in Delhi 38 and is mentioned in the Ain-i-Akbari in the fourth category of the learned men of Akbar's time, namely, among those who look upon testimony as something filled with the dust of suspicion and handle nothing without proof'; he signed a nirnayapatra issued in 1583 in Kāśī and may have been among the contributors to the Kavindracandrodaya (cf. above, p. 77).140 According to Umesh Mishra14 he was the son of a younger brother of Vāsudeva Sārvabhauma; this statement tallies with Baldev Upadhyaya's comment that he was the son of the youngest son of Narahari Viśārada, 42 named Vidyāvācaspati.143 A grandson of his, Govinda Bhattācārya, son of Vidyānivāsa's son Rudra Nyāyavācaspati Bhattācārya, '44 may have been the 27th among the 77
134 Cf. introductory verse no. 5 (NVr 28, 25-26): alasamatir apidam vistriam nyāyaśāstram virahitabahuyatno līlayā vettu vijrah/ iti vinihitacetāh kauśalam kartukāmo gurucaranarajo 'ham karnadharikaromi //.
Cf. Mishra (1966: 434) and Upadhyaya (1994: 34). 136 Cf. introductory verse no. 4 (NVr 28, 23-24): advaitam gurudharmayor iva lasatksmāmandalimandanam rūpam kiñcana pauruşam
gira iva prāgalbhyasampädakam dāne karņam ivāvatīrņam aparam dāne dayādakșiņam tātam visvavisāricăruyaśasam
vidyāni vāsam numah //; cf. also verse 6 where Viśvanātha refers to himself as son of Vidyānivāsa (NVr 29, 24): vidyānivāsasunoh krtir eşā visvanathasya / viduşām atisükşmadhiyām amatsarānām mude bhavatu //. 137 According to Mishra (1966: 434), Vidyānivāsa was the winner, a statement which is most probably a mistake. 138 Cf. Shastri (1912: 9-10) and Upadhyaya (1994: 47); cf. also Benson (2001: 113) whose ms. evidence does not support Shastri's characterization of the nature of the dispute but points to another topic of discussion. 1.39 Cf. Bhattacharyya (1937: 34-35). 140 Cf. Shastri (1912: 12). 141 Cf. Mishra (1966: 434). 142 Cf. n. 97 above. 143 Cf. Upadhyaya (1994: 34). 144 Cf. Chakravarti (1915a: 286, 288).