Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

Author(s): Siddhasena Divakar, Vinayvijay, A N Upadhye
Publisher: Jain Sahitya Vikas Mandal

Page 42

Siddhasena and his Works
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to us. His exposition of Buddhism (No. 15) is undoubtedly influenced by ideas peculiar to the Madhyamika-Yogācāra school which came into existence in the second if not in the third century of the Christian era.
The coinmon verse between the Ratnakarandaka-śrā. and Nyāyāvatāra (No. 9) appears to be in its natural place in the former but superfluous in the latter. It is either copied or quoted by Siddhasena, or an interpolation in the Nyāyāvatāra. The theory of interpolation is more acceptable.
The date of Siddhasena fluctuates between the 1st century B.C. and 7th century A.D. JINAVIJAYAJI assigns him to the 1st century of the V.-era. Likewise is the view of M. B. JHAVERI on the ground that Siddhasena is mentioned in the Jainendra Vyākaraṇa (c. 482 A.D.) and the Sāmkhya and Vaišeșika views in the Diā.s are different from those of Isvarakļşņa and the Vaišeșika system. This cannot be accepted. There is something wrong about the proposed date of Mallavādi, for this very Mallavādi wrote a Ţippaña on the Nyāyabindu-țīkā of Dharmottara (about 837-47 A.D.) of which a palm-leaf Ms. in the Pattan Bhandar is dated 1174. JINAVIJAYAJI accepts for Jinabhadra the traditional date 588 A.D. and puts Divākara earlier than him. On the other hand it can be even argued that Siddhasena advocates his views against the apologetic position taken by Jinabhadra.
Dr. S. C. Vidyabhusan identifies Siddhasena with Kșapaņaka, one of the nine gems in the court of Vikramāditya. According to him, he belonged to the Svetāmbara sect and is mentioned by Pradyumnasūri (c. 980 A.D.) as well as by Jinasena in his Ādipurāna (dated 783 A.D.). To identify Siddhasena with Kșapaņaka and to say that he was Svetāmbara would be a weak position. Kșapanaka means a Digambara and Digambara Pațțāvalis duly mention Siddhasena Divākara.
Jacobi's arguments are quite cogent that Siddha sena adopts the expressions of Dharmakīrti. The Nyāyāvatāra 6-7 contain the favourite view of the Yogācāra school and unmistakably presuppose Dharmakīrti and the later phase of the Yogācāra school. Siddhasena must have flourished between Dharmakīrti (635-50 A.D.) and Haribhadra (c. 750 A.D.) and therefore he might be assigned to c. 700 A.D. This is corroborated by the fact that there have been no