on zankara's date -

[Ashok Aklujkar]

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote: >Another interesting paper in the
literature is S.Sankaranarayanan, "The colophon in the Bhamati: A New
Study," ALB, Vol 49, pp.34-61. I think it's a very good paper. The author
also refers the works of Vacaspati called nyAyashUcInibandha and
nyAyasUtroddhAra which have dates in their colophons. He has determined
that the date in the former must be a scribal mistake and the date given in
the latter is 906AD.<

In two of my recent papers I have tried to make some new deductions about
Vaacaspati's life and works. (I have not dealt with the problem of his date
since I had nothing new to offer in that respect.). One paper
"Vacaspati-misra's Tattva-samiksa  and the last two verses in Yukti-dipika
manuscriptsÆ has appeared in Adyar Library Bulletin 62 (1998):125-165. The
other "The Prologue and Epilogue Verses of Vacaspati-misra-IÆ is
forthcoming in Rivista degli Studi Orientali. In both these, I have pointed
out the weaknesses of Sankaranarayanan's paper mentioned above and also of
a subsequent paper of his in ALB 1997.

Sankaranarayanan is unaware that there were two Vaacaspati-mi;sras. The
Nyaaya-sutroddhaara could be ascribed to the 15th century
Vaacaspati-mi;sra, although the status of the text is not as certain as one
would wish.