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INTRODUCTION
"Düşyam vaco mama param nipuṇam vibhāvya Bhavavabodhavihito na dunoti dosah"- Raghunatna Širomani
I
The Title
Nyayasiddhantadipa
The Nyayasiddhantadipa (NSD) is a Navya-nyaya text written by Sasadhara, or Sasadharaсarya, who held, as almost all the manuscripts unanimously note, the glorious title of Mahopadhyaya the Great Teacher'. The most famous exponent of the Navya-nyaya school of philosophy was Gangeśa Upadhyaya of Mithila. The approximate date assigned to Gangesa is 1300-1350 A. D. But Sasadhara, as I shall argue below, must have preceded Gangesa almost by a century and a half.
The title of Sasadhara's work is usually given as Nyayasiddhantadipa"The Lamp of Nyaya Doctrinal Conclusions'. The second introductory stanza of the text states :
"This is The Lamp of Nyaya Doctrinal Conclusions', which is brightened by the oil of good reasonings and should be maintained with care by those who wish to win at philosophic debates."
But a problem arises in this regard when it is seen that several manuscripts end with the following colophon :
"iti mahopadhyaya-sri-Śaśadhara-viracitam Nyayaratna-prakaraṇam samaptam" ("Thus ends the prakarana called Nyayaratna composed by Mahopadhyaya Sri Sasadhara.")
Such a colophon obviously creates the impression that another, perhaps an alternative, title of the work was Nyayaratna. Compilers of different manuscript-catalogues were in doubt also about the real title of the work, In some cases, it was listed as Nyayaratna, in other cases, as Nyayasiddhantadipa. Thus, the Jesalmer Catalogue has two entries on p. 324:
Nyayaratna-prakaṇanam Saśadharasutra folios 39
Nyayaratna-prakarnam Saśadhara-sutra Tippani-saha folios 43. The Jodhpur Catalogue has the following entry on p. 162: 1364 E. 4341 Nyayaratna-prakaranam Saśadhara-sarma falios 32.
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But the Nagpur Catalogue, the Benares Catalogue, and many others give the title as Nyayasiddhantadipa. And the commentaror Seşananta in the
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