Studien zu Nyayasutra III.1, mit dem Nyayatattvaloka Vacasaspati Misras. Two volumes.

• Author: ROCHER, LUDO
• Position: Review

Studien zu Ny[bar{a}]yas[bar{u}]tra III.1, mit dem Ny[bar{a}]yatattv[bar{a}]loka V[bar{a}]casaspati Mi[acute{s}]ras. Two volumes. By KARIN PREISENDANZ. Alt- und Neu-Indische Studien, vols. 46.1 and 2. Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 1994. Pp. lii + 858. DM 188.

Tempus fugit! While reading the introduction to these two learned volumes I was vividly reminded of the time, nearly half a century ago, when I too, was collecting materials on the life and works of V[bar{a}]caspatimi[acute{s}]ra. The only difference is that I concentrated on V[bar{a}]caspati's writings on Dharma, whereas Preisendanz zeroes in on his texts dealing with Ny[bar{a}]ya (thirty and ten, respectively, according to his last work, the Pitrbhakritaraiigint). I felt rewarded by the fact that the data I collected many years ago (V[bar{a}]caspati Mi[acute{s}]ra, Vyavah[bar{a}]racint[bar{a}]mani: A Digest on Hindu Legal Procedure [Gent, 1956]) are still of some relevance to the discussion of V[bar{a}]caspati's work and his date. (I placed his works between CE. 1450 and 1500; Preisendanz dates him between 1410, or rather 1420, and 1490).

A number of things again struck me about the works of one of the most prolific writers in fifteenth-century Mithil[bar{a}]. First, with rare exceptions, his works have been preserved in very few manuscripts. For several texts, to which V[bar{a}]caspati himself refers in his other works--and he does so quite often--we have no manuscripts whatever. On the other hand, at least one of his works on dharma, the Dvaitanirnaya, was commented on not once, but twice.

Second, even fewer texts by V[bar{a}]caspati have been published. In the area of dharma, the principal exception is the Viv[bar{a}]dacint[bar{a}]mani, which as edited and translated twice, for the obvious reason that, under the R[bar{a}]j, this text became recognixed as a source book of Hindu law in the Mithil[bar{a}] school. The Tirthacint[bar{a}]mani was published in the Bibliotheca Indica. (One of my students, David P. Gold, is working on a critical edition and translation.) I note that, in the introduction to the Vyavah[bar{a}]racint[bar{a}]mani, I refer to a couple of texts that were published, but in such places that I could not trace the editions even in the major libraries in London. V[bar{a}]caspati's works on Ny[bar{a}]ya did not fare much better. Preisendanz observes that the Khandanoddh[bar{a}]ra, in which V[bar{a}]caspati refutes [acute{S}]r[bar{i}]harsa's...