Book Title: Nirgrantha-2 Author(s): M A Dhaky, Jitendra B Shah Publisher: Shardaben Chimanbhai Educational Research CentrePage 42
________________ THE DATE OF VIDYĀNANDA : LITERARY AND EPIGRAPHICAL EVIDENCE M. A. Dhaky Vidyānanda, and Māņikyanandi (of the Parīkņāmukha fame), the pontiffs of the Southern Church, alongwith Siddharşi (active c. A. D. 880-920)' of the Northern Church, belong to the last batch of the great epistemologists within the ambit of the Brhad-Nirgrantha tradition. Vidyānanda's known works, some of which are famous, are the Tattvārtha-śloka-vārttika?, the Astasahasri', the Yuktyanuśāsanālankāra", the Vidyānanda-mahodaya', the Apta-parīksā, the Pramāna-pariksā', the Patra-parīksā, the satyaśāsana-pariksa', and the Śrīpura-Pārsvanātha-stotra. The writers of this century had for long been placing him between the last quarter of the eighth and the first quarter of the ninth century A. D. and thus to the pre-medieval times. While late K. B. Pathak is one of the earliest to situate him in c. A. D. 816, but without producing much supporting evidence, it was Darbarilal Kothiya who collected much of the vital evidence which had bearing on the issue and presented it in his "Introduction" in Hindi to Vidyānanda's Āpta-pariksā where he almost convincingly fixed his date to c. A. D. 775-84011 Kothiya's main points (which incidentally includes, according to his method of investigation, an observation that Vidyānanda did not anywhere refute Vācaspati Miśra, the famous mid 9th century scholiast and commentator of the works belonging to various darśanas) had been summarized by Gokul Chandra Jain in his “Introduction" in Hindi to the Satyaśāsan[a] Pariksā, pp. 29-31. Nathmal Tatiya, in his prefatory paper, "A compendium of Vidyānanda's Satyaśāsana-parīksā” to the Satyaśāsan[a] Pariksă edited by Jain, had, however, pointed out that Vidyānanda, in the Satyaśāsana-parīksā, had in point of fact quoted an inaugural verse from the Bhāmati-tīkā on the Nyāya-värttika of Udyotakara (c. 6th-7th cent. A. D.) as cited by Vācaspati Miśra, and also had drawn attention to a reference by Vidyānanda to Miśra himself at another place there as "Nyāyavārttikakāra”12 Seemingly based on the indicators in Tatiya's prefatory, Jain, in his aforementioned “Introduction," cited the relevant verse and the phrase from Vidyānanda, which went against Kothiya's assertion that Vidyānanda did not refute Vācaspati Miśra13. Vidyānanda, on this showing, has to be placed some time after A. D. 850. Since the style of writing of Vidyānanda (as of Siddharşi's) and also the phrasing, choice of words, as well as approach betray the colour and flavour of medievalism, further doubts arise about his so far conceded early date. In point of fact, the suspicion is well-founded as will now be shown. For determining Vidyānanda's more precise date, a re-engraved copy in c. mid 12th century of an earlier inscription of ś.s.993/A. D. 1071-1072 from Gāvarvād (medieval Gāvarivāda) in Karnataka 14 is very helpful. In this inscription, the donee is a Digambara Jaina divine Tribhuvanacandra whose hagiological history is given, and therein Vidyānanda finds a mention as a confrére of Māņikyanandi. (See the Table appended at the paper's end.) Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.orgPage Navigation
1 ... 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326