Nyayavatara and Nayakarnika

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

Page 85

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Siddhasena and his Works
takes them to be references to Samudragupta in comparison with his inscription as enumerated and elaborated here. Of the 26 points adduced by KRAUSE none is decisive and peculiar to Samudragupta. KRAUSE's inference from the words like Satyabhāmā, Ādyapuruşa, Mțgapati, Mahendra etc. can be explained away even differently. The claim of Candragupta II is negatived by the fact that he possessed immoral character. All other identities proposed above can be set aside. The Guruparamparā also shows that Siddhasena, the pupil of Vĩddhavādi, was a contemporary of Vikramāditya in 57 B.C. The explanation that Siddhasena belonged to Vidyādhara Āmnāya agrees with our premises. JUGALKISHORE's identification of Divākara Yati with Siddhasena cannot be accepted because of the anachronism involved.
JACOBI, VAIDYA and MUKTHAR assign Siddhasena to the 7th century A.D. after Dharmakīrti whose definition is adopted by him. But this definition is now shown to be earlier than Dharmakirti: so also the twofold division of Pratyakşa and Anumāna are all earlier than Dharma kīrti. VAIDYA'S contension that Siddha sena was a predecessor of Jina bhadra holds no water. MUKHTAR'S view that Siddhasena borrowed a verse (No. 9) from the Ratnakarandaka of Samantabhadra cannot be used for chronology now, because it is not the work of Samantabhadra, the author of Āptamīmāṁsā. The date of Ratnakarandaka is about 1000 a.d. There is no positive evidence before us to prove the influence of the first Samantabhadra or of Umāsvāti (4th century A.D.) or of Kundakunda (5th century A.D.) on Siddhasena. This evidence requires us to place Siddhasena in the latter half of the first century B.C. There is nothing in the works of Siddhasena that can be called as post-Kālidāsa Sanskrit. Some scholars believe that Kālidāsa flourished in the first century B.C.
That Siddhasena flourished in the reign of Vikramāditya of Ujjain, who established the Kịta era, is corroborated by some items in his works: 1) The use of Kāņda; 2) older form of the Sāņkhya; 3) full description of Niyativāda; 4) the characteristics of Vedavāda; 5) the contemporary doubt of Jinahood of Mahāvīra; 6) archaic forms of Sanskrit; 7) Siddhasena being the first author to write systematically on Logic among the Jainas; 8) the