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INTRODUCTION
17
one way or the other, with the clarification of the concept of vyāpti and vyapti-graha, but not all of them came from either Mithila or Bengal. It is probable that the logicians of western India also discussed the problems of logic and epistemology which Gangesa tried to grapple with in his Tattva. cintamani. On this point D. C. Bhattacharya held a dogmatic view that almost all the creative Navya-nyāya authors came form either Mitbila or Bengal.
From what has been discussed above, I wish to draw the following conclusions:
(a) Śaśadhara most probably belonged to Western India. There is no factual evidence to show that he hailed from Mithila (as D. C. Bhattacharya obviously took for granted).
(b) Śaśadbara may be identical with Sasidhara, the author of the two inscriptions mentioned above. One is dated in 1156 A. D. (according to Klelhorn), accordingly the second is to be placed in 1174 A. D. Thus, the NSD might have been written not later than 1200 A. D. This date does not seem to be in contradiction with any interanal evidence to be gleaned from NSD. Śaśadhara respectfully quotes Udayan several times, and Uda. yana's date, according to the latest research (see D. C. Bhattacharya), falls in between 1025 and 1100 A.D. Sasdhara also refers to another author by name, Vadi Vāgiśvara, the author of Mana-manohara. The same Manamanohara has been referred to by name by the great polymath Venkatanatha Śrı Vedantadešika of the Rāmānuja school of Vedānta in his Nyaya parisuddhi (Chowkhamba edition p. 278). Venkațanātha lived between 1267 and 1369 A. D. (a life-span of 102 years, see Introduction of radavabhyudaya-kavya, Vani Vilas Edition). Even Citsukha (1200 A. D.) refuted Vadi Vāgišvara's view. In our opinion, Vadi Vāgıśvara was an older contemporary of Śaśadhara. Thus, Sašadhara must have preceded Gangesa almost by 150 years.
The above two conclusions obviously run contrary to the conclusions reached by previous scholars like D. C. Bhattacharya. But I think the evidence collected by me shows the plausibility of the above conclusions. It is worth pointing out that my dating of Śaśadhara is not too far away from the date 1125 A. D., which S. C. Vidyabhusana assigned to Saśadhara. I am, of course, not in agreement with Vidyabhusana when he claims that Śaśadhara was believed to be a native of Mithila. It is also worth pointing out that Pandit Dhundhiraj Sastri's account of the personal history of Saśadhara helps us to identify him with Sasidhara, author of the Bheraghat Inscription, although it must be admitted that Dhundhiraj's account is of
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