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JAIN JOURNAL
Vol. XXXII
No. 4 April
1998
SIDDHASENA DIVĀKARA AND HIS NYĀYĀVATĀRA'
SATYA RANJAN BANERJEE
1. Siddhasena Divākara
Siddhasena Divākara alias Kșapaņaka (crica 480-550 A.D.), a celebrated logician, is claimed by both the Digambaras and Svetambaras as one of their own authorities. The earlier eminent authorities before Siddhasena were Kundakunda (1st cent. A.D.), a pupil of Bhadrabāhu II, and his disciple Umāsvāmi or Umāsvāti (1-85 A.D.), Bhattakera (1st cent. A.D.) and Kārttikeyasvāmi(1st cent. A.D.).? According to the evidence of Pattāvali's Vệddhavādin, Pādalipta (=Pkt. Pālitta) and Siddhasena Divākara were contemporaries.3
Siddhasena Divākara is famous both as a logician and a lyrical poet. His book, Kalyāna-mandira-stotra of 44 stanzas is a hymn-book addressed to Pārsvanātha. His other two books - Dvātrimsaddvātrimsikā and Sammati-tarka-sūtra-though form a part of his Nyāyāvatāra, exhibit his poetic talent.
The work for which Siddhasena Divākara is famous is his Nuāyāvatāra. It is written in 32 Sanskrit stanzas and is a fundamental work on Jaina logic. The book discusses the means of acquiring right knowledge (pramāņa) and of methods (naya). In Jaina logic Pramanaśāstra is necessary to establish the validity of the nine categories (nava-tattva) of Jaina Philosophy.
The Pramāņa-Šāstra, i.e., the science of right knowledge, discusses mainly the principles of pure logic in order to expound the dogmas of Jaina religion and metaphysics. But, in fact, Siddhasena Divākara and Dinnāga, the Buddhist logician, by about 450 A.D., differentiated first the principles of Logic from the domain of religion and metaphysics. Gautama, the ancient logician, enumerates the sixteen categories of 1. Reprinted with additions and alterations from S.R. Banerjee's Introduction
to his edition of Nyāyāvatāra, Calcutta, 1981. 2. All the dates are from Winternitz's Hist. Ind. Lit. Vol-II (1933), pp. 476-477. 3. Klatt. IA. Vol. 11, p. 257.
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