Page:A History of Indian Philosophy Vol 1.djvu/295

 VIII] Date of the Nyiiya .siltra.s 279 thinks that the siitras underwent two additions, one at the hands of some Buddhists and another at the hands of some Hindu who put in Hindu arguments against the Buddhist ones. These suggestions of this learned scholar seem to be very probable, but we have no clue by which we can ascertain the time when such additions were made. The fact that there are unmistakable proofs of the interpolation of many of the siitras makes the fixing of the date of the original part of the Nyiiya siitras still more diffi- cult, for the Buddhist references can hardly be of any help, and Prof. Jacobi's attempt to fix the date of the Nyiiya siUras on the basis of references to Siinyavada naturally loses its value; except on the supposition that all references to Si:inyavada must be later than Nagarjuna, which is not correct, since the llIahiiyiina sfttras written before Nagarjuna also held the Si:inyavada doctrine. The late Dr S. C. Vidyabhi:ial)a in f.R.A.S. 1918 thinks that the earlier part of Nyaya was written by Gautama about 550 B.c. whereas the Nyiiya sittras of Akapada were written about 150 A.D. and says that the use of the word Nyaya in the sense of logic in llIahiibhtzrata I. I. 67, I. 70. 42-5 I, must be regarded as interpolations. He, however, does not give any reasons in support of his assumption. It appears from his treatment of the subject that the fixing of the date of Akapada was made to fit in somehow with his idea that Akapada wrote his lVyiiya sfttras under the influence of Aristotle-a supposition which does not require serious refutation, at least so far as Dr Vidyabhii!?al)a has proved it. Thus after all this discussion we have not advanced a step towards the ascertainment of the date of the original part of the Nyaya. Goldstiicker says that both Patanjali (140 B.c.) and Katyayana (fourth century B.C.) knew the Nyiiya siUras 1. We know that Kautilya knew the Nyaya in some form as AnvlkikI in 300 B.C., and on the strength of this we may venture to say that the N yaya existed in some form as early as the fourth century B.c. But there are other reasons which lead me to think that at least some of the present siitras were written some time in the second century A.D. Bodas points out that BadarayaI!a's siitras make allusions to the Vaise!?ika doctrines and not to Nyaya. On this ground he thinks that VaiJe#ka sittras were written be- fore Badarayal)a's BralulZa-sittras, whereas the Nyiiya siitras were written later. Candrakanta Tarkalarpkara also contends in his 1 Goldstticker's Piizilli, p. 157.