Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 79

*48
Siddhasena and his Works
struck many a novel note in his works. He shows remarkable influence of and is inspired by Mahāvīra and his personality. Not only he shows devotion to Mahāvīra but is also out to expound his tenets in a critical manner.
As to the style of these Dvā.s, they are written in dignified Sanskrit, often bristling with many figures of speech. Siddhasena is as lucid as Kālidāsa. He has used seventeen different metres. Most of the Dvā.s are in the Anuştubh metre with a change in the concluding verse.
The Dvā.s 1-5 (addressed to Mahāvīra), 11 (addressed to some king) and 21 (to Mahāvīra, but composed by some other Siddhasena) are eulogistic. The 6th and 8th are critical in nature, and the rest are philosophical. The 7th gives the main rules of controversy. Six philosophical Dvā.s deal with non-Jaina systems (9 Veda, 12 Nyāya, 13 Sāmkhya, 14 Vaiseșika, 15 Bauddha and 16 perhaps Ajīvika). The remaining six (10, 17, 18, 19, 20 and 22) deal with Jaina philosophy: the 22nd, of course, primarily with Jaina logic.
In the range of eulogistic Sanskrit literature, among the wellknown authors and their hymns, it is only with Samantabhadra and his Srayambhū-stotra that Siddhasena and his hymns deserve close comparison. Siddhasena concentrates his devotion only on Mahāvīra, while the Svayambhū-stotra covers all the Tirthakaras. Between Siddhasena and Samantabhadra there are close resembl. ances of expression, subject-matter and style (which are enumerated in details). Some of these ideas are subsequently adopted by Vidyānanda and Hemacandra. Some of the ideas are common with Purāņic mythology and Buddhist thought. The influence of the Upanişads and Gitā is found in the first five Dvā.s, but no trace of it is found or seen in the Svayambhū-stotra. Some of the descriptions of Kālidāsa like that of the marriage procession have a similarity in Siddhasena's hymns. Ašvaghoşa also has a similar context but the atmosphere is different. · The Dvā 2 in the Vasantatilaka metre reminds one of the famous Bhaktāmara and the Kalyānamandira. If Siddhasena were to be the author of the Kalyāṇamandira, it could not have been so barren of the philosophical ideas so common with him. The Dvā 3 contains the idea of Puruşottama and can be compared