Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 59

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Siddhasena and his Works
Siddhasena. It cannot be categorically accepted that the Nyāyāvatāra is one of the Dvā.s: it is possibly an independent work.
The 5th and 21st Dvā.s, though mentioning the name of Siddhasena, are not of one authorship on account of their forms. Likewise other anonymous Drā.s may be by different Siddhasenas. Pts. SUKHALALAJI and BECHARADASAJI group the first fiive Dvā.s as an unit. They are in praise of Mahāvīra and bear close comparison with the Svayambhū-stotra of Samantabhadra. The word svayambhū is at the beginning and the author's names are mentioned or hinted at the close (V. 32). The remaining 15 are a group or groups composed by different Siddhasenas. The 11th is in praise of a king; 6th and 8th are polemic; and the remaining are doctrinal or philosophical. There is a discrepancy in the number of verses in different Dvā.s: this is posterior to the composition and possibly due to copyists with different motives. Only when some new Mss. are found, many points, such as the name of the king, the number of verses etc. can be ascertained.
All the Dvās are not Stutis, though claimed as such; and this does not fit in well with the story given in the Prabandhas that, at the request of Vikramāditya, Siddhasena recited the Stutis before the Sivalinga. This can be said about only six Dvā.s, and the rest of them have no relevance.
The references and contexts mentioned in the Prabhāvakacarita do not suit at all these Dvā.s; so the Stutis offered there must be different. The various Prabandhas are not unanimous about the image that came out of the Sivalinga, whether Adinātha or Pārsvanātha. There is an attempt to make the tales consistent with the present Dvā.s. The following points are clear: i) Th Dvā.s were not composed in the present order; ii) they are not of one and the same Siddhasena; iii) the Nyāyāvatāra is one of them; iv) the difference in the number of verses is later and due to some motives ; v) and the present Drā.s do not fit in well with the stories in the Prabandhas. So any conclusion should be limited only to a particular Dvā.
It is claimed that all the 20 Dvā.s (excepting the 21st) the Nyāyāvatāra and the Sanmati are composed by one and the same Siddhasena who, according to Svetāmbara Prabandhas, was a pupil of VỊddhavādi and had a title Divākara. Following this