Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 54

Siddhasena and his Works
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compliments his sūktayah; Haribhadra (Pañcavastuka between 650 and 777 A.D.) refers to his famous Sanmati-tarka and to his being Divākara, and further in his Anekāntajaya-patākā). speaks of a Vịtti (not available) to Sanmati-tarka composed by Mallavādin (c. 5th century of the Vikrama era) who wrote annotations to Dharmottara's commentary on Dḥarmakīrti's Nyāyabindu; Jinadāsagani (in his Cürnī to the Niśītha-sūtra 676 A. D.) has two references to the Sanmati and one to the miraculous powers of Siddhasenācārya ; Jinabhadragani (Viseşāvasyakabhāsya, 611 A.D.) discusses the main doctrines of Siddhasena; sivakoti's Ratnamālā (of doubtful date) mentions Bhattāraka Siddhasena as prior to Samantabhadra, as in some Svetāmbara Pattāvalis; Pūjyapāda (in his Jainendra-Vyākoraņa, c. 450 A. D.) refers to Siddhasena along with Bhūtabali, Prabhācandra, Samantabhadra and other ancient Jaina authors; and lastly Varāhamihira's Byhajjātaka (c. 505 A. D.) mentions an astronomer-author Siddha sena. All this shows that Siddhasena flourished earlier than 450 A.D.
Siddhasena is acclaimed as an authority by both the Digambara and Svetāmbara authors. It is only the internal evidence that has led the editors of the Sanmati to decide that he cannot have been a Digambara. According to an inscription on a statue at Jaisalmer, Siddhasena belonged to Nāgendrakula which is not consistent with the statement of the Prabandhas that he is assigned to Vidyādhara-vassa or-gaccha which is to be understood possibly as Vidyādhara Sākhā.
H. JACOBI and P. L. VAIDYA inferred from the use of the term bhrānta used by Siddhasena that he is following Dharmakirti and therefore assigned him to the second half of the 7th century A.D. This and MUKTHAR's argument that Siddhasena adopts a verse from the Ratnakarandaka are refuted by SANGHAVIDOSHI who assign him to the 5th century of the Vikrama era, in the Gupta period. SANGHAVI confirms his earlier view (in the light of Jinabhadra's definite date) of the 5th century A. D. in supersession of Malavania's opinion to assign him to the 6th or 7th century A. D. The terminus ante quem for Siddhasena's time is c. 450 A. D., but the terminus a quo is still open, because of "the method hitherto resorted to, namely, by drawing conclusions from the dates of heterodox works which happen to contain