Hetubindu Tika

Author(s): Dharmakirti Mahaswami, Archatt Bhatt, Durvek Mishra Pandit, Sukhlal Sanghavi, Jinvijay, B Bhattacharya
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

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In the absence of his work, the name of Durveka Misra would have disappeared in the bosom of time, because he is mentioned neither in the works of the Tibetan authors nor in those of the Indian thinkers. the Jaina authors, of course, mention the name of Arcata. But the name. of the Brahmana Durveka is confined in his own works. A few leaves1of the sub-commentary of the Nyayabindu have been found in the Jesalmere Bhandara, and most probably, they belong to the work of Durveka misra. If this is the fact, it must be admitte l that somewhere some Jaina scholar must have endeavoured to preserve and utilize the works of Durvekamisra.
The scholarship of Durveka is befitting a Brahmana philosopher of Mithila. He is a man of versatile learning and also a grammarian-this is manifest everywhere in his sub-commentary which is as deep as the the commentary of Arcata. Whenever he takes for explanation a particular term from Arcata's work, often times he is found to lay bare the heart of Arcata's meaning in the form of the opponent's position or an introduction to a particularotpic. Moreover, he is an independent thinker. Sometimes he disagrees with Arcata himself and records his own independent view. This shows that there must have been incentives to independent thinking in the Buddhist centres of learning. The fact that Durveka sometimes records his disagreement with the views of Arcata whom he so respectfully mentions as his own teacher indicates freedom of thought.
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It can be admitted that Durveka flourished during the last quarter of the 10th and the first half of the 11th century A. D. inasmuch as he was a student of Jitari, the preceptor of Dipankara Jñanasri, both of whom were positively present in the last quarter of the 10th century.3 Moreover, the number of his works and the versatility of his learning point to the possibility of a long range of his life.
1 These leaves are lying with Muni Shri Jinavijayaji, 2 Vide Text, p. 243, 262, 271, 303, 367, 393 etc.
.3. H.. I. Lupa 337