Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 84

Siddhasena and his Works
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rences to Siddhsena and his works can help us to decide one terminus. 1) Haribhadra (7-8th century A.D.) refers to Siddhasena and his Sanmati. 2) Jinadāsagaạimahattara (676 A.D.) mentions Siddhasena and his Sanmati. 3) Jinabhadra Kşamāśramaņa (611 A.D.) refutes abhedavāda propounded by Siddhasena. 4) Pūjyapāda (6th century A.D.) refers to Siddhasena in his Jainendra Vyākarana and quotes from one of the Dvātriņšikās (in his Sarvārthasiddhi). 5) Mallavādi is said to have written a commentary on the Sanmati, and his Drādaśāranayacakra contains references to it. There are differences about the date of Mallavādi. So Siddhasena is earlier than Mallavādi and the tradition puts him as a contemporary of Vikramāditya who flourished in 57 B.C.
That Siddhasena was a contemporary of Vikramāditya is corroborated by a number of reference in the Prabandhas of Jinaprabha, Rājasekhara, Prabhācandra and Bhadreśvara. It cannot be said that these stories were manipulated.
The date and identity of Vikramāditya are still under controversy. 1) VIDYABHUSANA indentifies him with Yasodharamadeva of Mālava (530 A.D.). 2) KALYANAVIJAYA considers him to be Balamitra. 3) KRAUSE guesses him to be Samudragupta (340–375 A.D.). 4) SANGHAVI and Doshi identity him with Chandragupta II (380-418 A.D.), 5) PATHAK equates him with Skandhagupta (455-56 A.D.). 6) JAYASWAL takes him to be Śāta karņi Gautamīputra. 7) WINTERNITZ and others envisage him as a fictitious person.
On the authority of the Prabandhas, this Vikramāditya who is associated with Siddhasena, is Vikrama who founded the era. There are reasons for this view: 1) the contents of GunavacanaDvātrimśikā; 2) the prasasti in the Prabandha-cintāmaņi; and 3) the record at the Nābheya shrine seen by Jinaprabha. There are some other considerations as well to put Vikramādiya in the first century B.c.: 1) Hāla describes the donation of one Vikramāditya who preceded himself (87 A.D.). 2) Varāhamihira quotes an ancient Garga and Vikramāditya was earlier than him. It is he who started the Vikrama Samvat and inaugurated a golden age as it were. That Siddhasena has this king in view is fully
orne out by the various references in the Gunavacana-Dvā (see verses 17, 24 etc.) enumerated and interpreted here. KRAUSE