Nyayavatara

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

Page 60

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Malwa, who, on the authority of Alberuni, defeated the Huns at Korur in 533 A.D. This view of scholars agrees well with the statement of the Chinese pilgrim Hwen-thsang, who visited India in 629 A.D. and says that a very powerfull King, presumably Vikramaditya, reigned at Ujjaini 60 years before his arrival there.5 Moreover, Varāhamihira, who was one of the nine Gems at the court of Vikramāditya, is known to have lived between 505 A.D. and 587 A.D.6 It is therefore very probable that Vikramaditya and his contemporary Siddhasena Divākara lived at Ujjaini about 530 A.D. I am inclined to believe that Siddhasena was no other than Kșapanaka? (a Jaina sage) who is traditionally known to the Hindus to have been one of the nine Gems that adorned the court of Vikramāditya.
Siddhasena Divākara seems to have been a senior contemporary of Jinabhadra Gani Kşamāśramaņa (484-588 A.D.) who criticises Dvätrimsat-dvātrimśikā of which the Nyāyāvatāra is a part.
5 Vide Beal's Buddhist Records Vol. II. p. 261.
6 Varāhamihira chose sak 427 or A.D. 505 as the initial year of his astronomical calculation, showing thereby that he lived about that time. afaca'ui etc. is already quoted in the introduction p. 29.
(Pancasiddhantikā, Chap. I, edited by Dr. G. Thibaut and Sudhakara Dvivedi). Vide also Dr. Thibaut's Introduction to the Pancasiddhāntikā, p. XXX. . The nine Gems are qaraf etc. from Jyotirvidăbharana is already quoted in the introduction p. 29.
In the Pancatantra and other Brahmanic Sanskrit work as well as in the Avadāpakalpalatā and other Buddhist Sanskrit works the Jaina ascetics are nicknamed as Kșapanaka. The verse agurfga etc. (Avadänakalpalatā, · Jyotiskāvadāna) is already quoted in the introduction p. 30.