Tarkatarangini

Author(s): Gunratna, Vasant G Parikh
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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The problem can be solved, however, by re-considering the date of Gv. as the date of Gn. is already fixed on the strength of the colophon of his commentary of Kavyaprakāśa as shown above.
Balabhadra, the commentator of SP. may not be the same Balabhadra, who is the father of Gv. Even the colophon of Balabhadrasandarbha suggests that this Balabhadra was a Tripāthī and not a Miśra.14 Thus, there is not any definite proof to prove the identity. Hence, to fix the date of Balabhadra, the father of Gv. on the ground of Sp. is not of much help.
GV. himself states that he was the son of Balabhadra and the younger brother of Padmanābha, in the beginning of the Tpk. 15 This Balabhadra has also written a commentary on Tbh.16 His date is fixed as 1578 A. D. by Prof. Paranjape. But this date is fixed only on the strength of the Virabhadra Campu. We have no proof excepting the authority of Aufrecht's catalogue of MSS. to believe that the author of Virabhadra Campu was the same Padmanābha, the elder brother of Gv. Again, there is not much authentic information confirmed by history about a particular king Virabhadra. So Gyi's date, as 1578 A. D., is not proved satisfactorily.
It will be better to fix Gv.'s date on the strength of dates of Ke. and Gn. themselves. Ke. quotes Udayana," who is generally supposed to have flourished about the end of the 12th century A. D. Again we ha commentary on Tbh. by Cinnambhatta, who lived under the auspices of Harihara and Bukkaraya, whose date is supposed to be between A. D. 13501400. So Ke.'s date may fall between A. D. 1200-1400. Gn.'s date is fixed as 1553 A. D. already. So the safest period for the date of Gv. may be the laterhalf of the 15th century A. D. or the beginning of the 16th century A. D.
(3) Gn.'s Scholarship
From the text, we come to know that Gn. has studied the Nyāya philosophy from Puskar Miśra, the son of Nārāyana Miśra. 18 Nothing is yet known about both of them. The term Miśra may suggest their native place as Mithila, the seat of the learning in Navya-Nyāya. Gn. is a learned pupil of this scholar and a master of Navya-Nyāya, as he quotes not only scholars like Vatsyāyana, Udayana, Gangesa and Paksadhara Miśra, but he also refers to scholars like Sanätani Pundita, Ratnakosakāra, Haridās and Krusnadās. 19 At