Nyayavatara

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Sanskrit Book Depot P Ltd

Page 28

INTRODUCTION
1. Siddha Sena Divākara, the author of Nyāyāvatāra. Logic was mixed up with metaphysics and religion in the ancient writings of the Jainas as in those of other sects in India. The first Jaina writer on Pure Logic appears to have been Siddha Sena Divākara. It was he who, for the first time among the Jainas, distinguished logic from the cognate branches of learning by composing a metrical work called Nyāyāvatāra on Logic in thirtytwo couplets (ślokas).
Siddha Sena Divākara is the famous author of the Sammatitarka-sūtra, which is a Prāksta work on philosophy containing an elaborate discussion on the principles of logic. This author, who belonged to the Svetāmbara (white robed) sect,. has been mentioned by Pradyumna Sūri (980 A.D.) in his Vicāra-sāra-prakarana."
He was a pupil of Vrddha-vādi Süri, and received the name of Kumuda-candra' at the time of his ordination. He is said to have
plit, by the efficacy of his prayers, the Linga (Brāhmanical symbol) of Rudra in the temple of Mahākāla at Ujjaini, and to have called forth an image of Pārsvanātha by reciting the hymn Kalyāņamandira-stava. He is believed to have converted king Vikramāditya to Jainism, 470 years after the Nirvāna of Mahāvira." The Jainas believe that he was the spiritual tutor of that famous king, as is evident from the Kumāra-pāla-caritra and other works.
It may be noted here that Vikramāditya of Ujjaini has been considered by some scholars to be identical with Yaśodharma Deva, king of Malwa, who, according to Alberuni, had defeated the Huns at Korur in 533 A.D. The Chinese pilgrim Hwen-tshang (Yuan chwang), who came to India in 629 A.D., says that a very powerful king (presumably Vikramaditya) reigned 60 years before his arrival there. From these it appears that Siddha Sena Divākara, who was a contemporary of Vikramāditya, must have lived at Ujjaini about 550 A.D.
1 पंचेव य वरिससए सिद्धसेण-दिवायरो य जयपयडो।
छच्चसए वीसहिए सक्कथु ऊ अज्जरक्खिपहू ।। २६ ।। (Vicāra-sāra-prakaraņa, noticed by Peterson in his Third Report, p. 272.) * Cf, Prabhāvakacarita VIII. V. 57.
* See Klatt's Paţtā vali of the Kharatara Gaccha in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. XI, Sept. 1882, p. 247.
Vide Beal's Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. II, p. 26.