Kiranavali of Udayanacaryya

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Udayanacaryya has tremendous contributions to the two prominent astika systems of Indian Philosophy, viz. Nyaya and Vaisesika. The original text of the Vaiseşika-sütra is by Kanāda and there is an elaboration of it in the form of a gloss called the Prasastapada-bhäşya, otherwise known as Padarthadharma- samgraha, which in its turn has been interpreted by Udayana in his Kiranavali. Though a bhäşya, the Kiranavali can be re- garded as a work with novelty having rich original thinking of Udayanacaryya. Prof. Narendra Candra Vedantatirtha's edition of the Kiranavali was published from the Asiatic Society, Kolkata, in 1956. It was the continuation of an earlier edition of the same text undertaken by Mm. Śivacandra Sarvabhauma and pub- lished by the Asiatic Society under its B.I. Series in 1911-12. Prof. Vedantatirtha's edition is based on eleven commentaries including that of the text of Kiranavali-tika by Bhaṭṭa Vädindra, the manuscript of which is preserved in the Asiatic Society Mu- seum. Though the Kiranavali has been edited by some other later renowned scholars, the relevance of the edition with a valu- able Introduction prepared by Prof. Vedantatirtha exists till to- day. We are happy that the celebrated work of Udayanäcäryya edited by Prof. N.C. Vedantatirtha has been printed again to satisfy the inquisitions of serious scholars.

A critical edition of Kinganals of Udayanachrys was undertaken by the Asiatic Society as early as 1911, and 288 pages were printed off during 1911-12, under the editorship of Mm Sivachandra Sarvabhauma, in the Bibliotheca Indica Series, Bot, unfortunately, the work was interrupted for a long time and it was only recently that I was entrusted with the work of completing it. I took up this arduous task and critically edited the text and the commentaries from several manuscripts. The previously printed pages contain the text of Kiranavali of Udayanacarys, the commentary Kiranavaliprakaa of Vardhamana Upadhyaya and the sub-commentary Kiranavaliprakasavivṛti of Rucidatta Misra; to these I have appended a commentary of Kiranavali by Bhatta Vädindra on the Dravya section from a unique manuscript in the Indian Museum Collection of the Asiatic Society. This solitary manuscript does not contain the name of the author or the title of the work, but the text shows that it is a commentary on Kiranavali; and from the undermentioned Aloka (fol. 48 a, lines 5-6, p. 677, lines 22-23), we learn that its author was Sankarakinkara or Harakinkara, otherwise known as Bhatta Vadindra. According to Nayanaprasadini commentary on Citsukhi (Pratyaktattvapradipika), he also wrote Maha- vidyaviḍambana (G. O. S.) and Rasasara (S. B. T.), a com- mentary on Kiranavali, Guna section, which has been edited by Mm. Dr. Gopinath Kaviraj. Dr. Kaviraj pointed out in his Introduction that Sankarakinkara or Harakinkara was another name of Bhatta Vidindra, the celebrated author of the Mahavidyavidambana, as is clear from the following verse.