Mis'ra (1425
A.D.) also wrote a commentary on the _Vais'e@sika sutras_ called the
_Upaskara_. Of these _Nyaya-kandali_ of S'ridhara on account of its
simplicity of style and elaborate nature of exposition is probably
the best for a modern student of Vais'e@sika. Its author was a
native of the village of Bhuris@r@s@ti in Bengal (Ra@dha). His father's
name was Baladeva and mother's name was Acchoka and he
wrote his work in 913 S'aka era (990 A.D.) as he himself writes
at the end of his work.

The _Nyaya sutra_ was written by Ak@sapada or Gautama, and
the earliest commentary on it written by Vatsyayana is known
as the _Vatsyayana-bha@sya_. The date of Vatsyayana has not

____________________________________________________________________

[Footnote 1: The bha@sya of Pras'astapada can hardly he called a
bha@sya (elaborate commentary). He himself makes no such claim and
calls his work a compendium of the properties of the categories
(_Padarthadharmasa@mgraha_). He takes the categories of _dravya,
gu@na, karma, samanya, vis'e@sa_ and _samavaya_ in order and without
raising any discussions plainly narrates what he has got to say on
them. Some of the doctrines which are important in later
Nyaya-Vais'e@sika discussions, such as the doctrine of creation and
dissolution, doctrine of number, the theory that the number of atoms
contributes to the atomic measure of the molecules, the doctrine of
pilupaka in connection with the transformation of colours by heat
occur in his narration for the first time as the _Vais'e@sika sutras_
are silent on these points. It is difficult to ascertain his date
definitely; he is the earliest writer on Vais'e@sika available to us
after Ka@nada and it is not improbable that he lived in the 5th or 6th
century A.D.]

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been definitely settled, but there is reason to believe that he
lived some time in the beginning of the fourth century A.D. Jacobi
places him in 300 A.D. Udyotakara (about 635 A.D.) wrote a
_Varttika_ on Vatsyayana's bha@sya to establish the Nyaya views
and to refute the criticisms of the Buddhist logician Di@nnaga
(about 500 A.D.) in his _Prama@nasamuccaya_. Vacaspatimis'ra
(840 A.D.) wrote a sub-commentary on the _Nyayavarttika_ of
Udyotakara called _Nyayavarttikatatparya@tika_ in order to make
clear the right meanings of Udyotakara's _Varttika_ which was sinking
in the mud as it were through numerous other bad writings
(_dustarakunibandhapa@nkamagnanam_). Udayana (984 A.D.)