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THE TARKA-BHĀSĀ-VĀRTTIKA OF SUBHAVIJAYA
Keśava Miśra (about 1275 A.D.) was the author of a Nyāya treatise called the Tarkabhāṣā i.e. "Technicality of Logic'. The Vaišeșika philosophy rendered considerable help to the development of Nyaya (Logic) and many of the sūtras of the Nyaya philosophy presuppose those of the Vaiseșika. In fact the Vaibesika and Nyāya philosophies of the ancient and medieval periods supplemented each other in respect of their subjects and styles. Hence the two philosophies were called samāna-tantra or allied systems. At last the Vaiseșika and Nyāya philosophies actually coalesced. As instances of Nyāya absorbing the Vaiseșika categories, we may cite the cases of Tarkarakṣā by Varadarāja and Tarkabhāsā of Keśava Miśra. The latter author brings the six categories of the Vaiseșika under "artha", which is one of the twelve objects included in the second Nyaya category "Prameya".!
There are numerous commentaries on the Tarkablāsā, such as those by Nārāyaṇa Bhatta, Gundu Bliatra, Bhinni Bliatta and Murāri Blatta, as by Gopinātha, Bhaskara Bhatta, Bala Candra, Nāgesa Blatra, Cinna Bhatta, Ganesa Diksita, Kaundinya Dikșita, Govardhana Miśra and others.2 M.M. Dr. Satis Chandra Vidyābh usana lias not known about one more commentary on this Tarkabhāsa, and due to this it has remained unnoticed and unpublished till now. This commentary is the present Tarkabhāṣāvārttika (TBV) by Subhavijaya Gani, (17th Cent. A. D.) who introduces himself as a very junior disciple of Hiravijayasūri, the contemporary of the Mughal Emperor Akbar. Subliavijaya has autliored at least four works over and above the TBV, viz., Syādvādabhāsä (sutra), Syadvādabhāsā(sutra)-vitti and the Praśnottaramālā, alias Senapraśnasārasangraha. The present edition of the TBV is based on the following two Mss. of the L. D. Institute of Indology, Ahmedabad, viz., No. 20796 and 30486. The text printed in bold types shows the original passages of Kesava Misra's Tarkabhāṣā, while the rest of the text comprises the work TBV of śubhavijaya.N.M.K.
1. Vidyabhusasa, s. C. - 'A History of Indian Logic', Calcutta, 1921, p. 373. 2. Op. cit., p.478.
We have published the Critical Text of Subhavijaya's Syādvādabhāsă in the
Sambodhi' Vol.XVIII, 1992-93 (pp. 103-122, in which, too, the text printed in bold types indicates the sutra part, the rest being the vrtti part. We intend to discuss the problems of this work in the future.
