Book Title: Nyayasiddhantadipa
Author(s): Shashadhar, Bimal Krishna Matilal
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 21
________________ INTRODUCTION Udayapa since he quoted some verses of Udayanācārya. He was also later than Vădi-Vāgāśvara (wbo is mentioned here by name). He seemed to have been (pratiyate) alive between 1200 and 1300 Śaka era (1278 and 1378 A. D.)." Professor D.C. Bhattacharya, wbo spent his life working on the chronological history of Navya-nyāya authors of Bengal and Mithilā by examining manuscripts and other original documents such as genealogical tables, appeared to have been quite upset at the seemingly irresponsible and obviously undocumented statement of Pandit Dhundbiraj. In fact, be interpreted Dhundbiraj's statement as 'hearsay' and remarked : “The whole of it seems to be a cabard, Hearsay in the present century cannot record so many exact details about a scholar of the 13th century.” (History of Navya-nyāya in Mithila, 1958, p. 90) In the earlier book on the History of Navya-nyāya in Bengal (in Bebgali: Bange Navya-nyāyā Carcă, Calcutta, 1952), Professor Bhattacharya was a bit milder in his criticism of Pandit DLundbiraj. He remarked: (1 trapslate) “According to the editor (Pandit Dhundhiraj Sastri) the date of Saś. adhara is 1200 Saka era, i.e. 1278 A. D. Although this is possible no ev. idence has been cited in this regard. It is a great pity that although the name of Saśadhara's father as well as that of his gotra has been mentioned in the preface, no trace of any evidence has been provided." (p. 11) It seems that Professor Bhattacharya was unable to trace the source of the informations supplied by Pandit Dhundhiraj. Thus, in his last book Hisory of Navya-nyaya in Mihila, which was posthumously published in 1958 he rejected these informations using such hard language as “hearsay' and 'canard'. But I shall show below that Pandit Dhuadhiraj's informations were not entirely baseless, although it was probable that he hiinself received them on second hand and hence did not mention his source. Saśadhara was mentioned in some manuscripts as Sasidhara. For example B. R. Bhandarkara in his Report on the Manuscripts in Central India and Rajputana (Hindi title : Rajasthan me Samskrta Sahitya khoj ke visayame ek visista vivaran) noted a manuscript of NSD by Sasidhara (cf. "Śaśid harakrta" p. 52). This manuscript is dated 1631 Samvat (1575 A.D.). Moreover, Śaśadhara, in the seminaries of Mithilā and Bengal, is sometimes referred to as “Sasidhara" (see History of Navya-nyaya in Mithila, p. 88-9). Thus, we may conclude that Sasidhara wis an alternative nane for Sašadhara. If this conjecture is right, then Pandit Dhundhiraj's information as well as the following evidence becomes very much pertinent in assigning a date of Saśadhara and NSD. Jain Education International For Private & Personal Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 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 ... 270