Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

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Siddhasena and his Works
technical terms or doctrines criticised by Siddhasena. For in view of the vast literature, which, though testified to have existed, is no longer available, it must be admitted that our knowledge of early Indian philosophy is relatively limited. It is therefore unsafe to state on the basis of the chance-remains available whether, in an individual case, a term or a doctrine appears in a certain work for the first time, or whether it represents one of the later links in the chain of Guru-paramparā lost to our view.'
5. The Gunavacana-dvātrimśikā, the 11th of the 21 or 22 available Dvā.s is an isolated example of secular panegyrical poetry in the midst of those a great part of which are in fact hymns in praise of Mahāvīra, some of which mostly contain refutations of heterodox philosophical systems or expositions of certain aspects of Jaina philosophy and some of which deal with the rules of disputation and controversy. Unlike those addressed to Mahāvīra this eleventh one has in view a royal patron who is revealed as such a unique personality, standing out in bold relief against the back-ground of warfare, empire-building and ingenious rule that, with the help of contemporaneous literature, even a modern reader can guess who he was and thus infer when Siddhasena lived. This eulogy contains graceful poetic figures as well as a small attack on the system of Vaiģēșika philosophy achieved with the help of occasional paranomasia.
The text of this Dvā. is edited here with various readings from two Mss. added in the footnotes which record also the names of metres of each verse. Then follows a studied translation in English. The literary qualities of the hymn, the poetic abilities of the author and his sense of admiration towards the patron are not only indicated but also expressed in catching terms (which deserve to be reproduced in estimating Siddhasena in different contexts).
6. The royal patron must have been an outstanding personality, likely to have left the imprint of his genius on the history of his times. The Dvā.s have a number of ideas and expressions common with the works of Kālidāsa with whom, therefore, Siddhasena's contemporaneousness cannot be ruled out: Siddhasena's style and diction agree with Gupta Prasastis (enumerated and illustrated in details); so like Kālidāsa, Siddhasena also