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I may be permitted to record my personal opinion, based on the general trend of the evidence discussed above, tentatively as follows:
The Nyayapraves'a is a work composed by S'ankarasvāmin to facilitate entrance into the Nyayadvāra ("The Gate of Logic") which is a work of his master Dinnaga.
In the interests of correct historical scholarship, it was necessary to consider whether the Nyayapraves'a was a work of Dinnaga's or S'ankarasvamin's. But the master and the pupil being contemporaries, there are several related problems to which it makes no difference whether we attribute this work to Dinnaga or to S'ankarasvamin. Thus, for example in discussing the chronological relationship of certain other works of literature and philosophy to the Nyayapraves'a, we may very well consider them in relation to Dinnaga, who is far better known than his pupil S'ankarasvamin.
II. The Nyayapraves'a and the Manimekhalai.
The question of the authorship of the Nyayapraves'a and its date have recently come into prominence in connection with chapter XXIX of a Tamil work called the Manimekhalai, which is almost identical with the whole of the Nyayapraves'a. Professor S. Kuppuswami S'astri of the Madras University has presented in parallel columns the striking coincidence of the logic of Araavanavatikal, the Buddhist teacher of Manimekhalai in the romance, with that of Dinnaga, the author of the Pramaņa-Samuccaya, whom he has assumed to be the author of the Nyayapraves'a also on the authority of Dr. Satischandra Vidyabhusana. The points of coincidence brought to light are:
and ag, with just one word
(1) The doctrine of two Яs,
added, viz., raz.
(2) The definition of which is confined to the निर्विकल्पक variety.
(3) The five aaaas, from which only three have been recognized, viz., पक्ष, हेतु and दृष्टान्त.
(4) The nine पक्षाभासs, viz, प्रत्यक्षविरुद्ध आगमविरुद्ध, स्ववचनविरुद्ध, लोकविरुद्ध, अप्रसिद्धविशेषण, अप्रसिद्धविशेष्य, अप्रसिद्धोभय and अप्रसिद्धसंबन्ध.
(5) The three हेत्वाभासs, viz., असिद्ध, अनैकान्तिक ( = अनिश्चित) and विरुद्ध, of which the first is subdivided into four viz., उभयासिद्ध, अन्यतरा सिद्ध, सिद्धासिद्ध (1) and आश्रयासिद्ध; the second into sir, viz, साधारण, असाधारण,
