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Acārya Vijayaśīlacandrasūri
Jambū-jyoti
the Sūtra-text, were led to believe that the qualification Haribhadri (f) only indicated the name of the commentator since it unambiguously refers to the term af. But, it is a noteworthy circumstance that, in this record, regarding the name of the original author there is no statement like चिरन्तनाचार्यकृतं or अज्ञातकर्तृक. And that circumstance corroborates the erroneous interpretation stated above. However, instead of adopting this line of thinking, someone, after noticing the above-noted record, might have taken the work as and thereafter that faulty supposition may have been perpetuated.
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After this, from the colophons of the two manuscripts of the Pañcasutra, copied in the 17th century of Vikrama Era, it can be clearly understood that either during that time or a little before it, a misunderstanding that the author of the Pañcasūtra and its commentator may have been different persons and that the name of the original author was unknown, may have gained currency. Those colophons are as follows:
‘समत्तं पंचसुत्रकं ।। छ ।। कृतं चिरन्तनाचायैर्विवृतं च जाकिनीमहत्तरासून श्रीहरिभद्राचार्यैः ।।'68
It is probable that, perhaps there may have been such colophons in other manuscripts also, copied during that period. And the tradition reflecting the miscomprehension regarding the identity of the author of the Pañcasūtra may have arisen from such misleading records. The direct consequence of such colophons leading to such a misunderstanding was that, instead of taking the sentence 'कृतिः सिताम्बराचार्यहरिभद्रस्य, धर्मतो याकिनीमहत्तरासूनोः ' put by the commentator (i.e. the author), after the sentence E
at the end of the commentary of the Pañcasūtra-in the reference of the original text and commentary, critics of our times may have taken this sentence to apply to the commentary alone.
And the second happening strenghthening the above-mentioned misunderstanding is that, at the end of the work composed by Haribhadra sūri, the term for which appears as a signifier of Haribhadra's work, is not present in the concluding portion of the Pañcasūtra text.
Now, when we know that the belief of attributing the authorship of the Pañcasūtra text to Cirantanācārya is not older than the late medieval times and we have at some length discussed the evidence regarding Haribhadra's authorship of the text of the Pañcasūtra as well as
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