29. The Bhasapariccheda. 



By Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri. 



The Bhasapariccheda is the standard text-book of the 

 Navadvipa school of Nyaya philosophy. It is widely studied 

 throughout India, from Nepal to Travancore and from Burma 

 to the Punjab. There are 166 verses in this work, but these 

 are learnt by heart by almost every pandita who has any 

 pretensions to scholarship. The work is generally accompanied 

 by a commentary by the author himself, which is as widely 

 read as the original text. 



The author is ViSvanatha Tarkapancanana, or simply 

 Visvanatha Paficanana, who also wrote a vrtti commentary on 

 the Gautama-Sutras. Aufecht registers 16 other works as 

 written by the same author. Dr. Roer translated the Bhasa- 

 pariccheda and its commentary in the Bibliotheca Indica series 

 in 1850. He says, "There is no pandita of any repute who 

 does not know it (Bhasapariccheda) well; and many know 

 the whole of it by heart, and indeed, it is admirably adapted 

 for the purpose of introduction into the study of the Nyaya 

 philosophy. It is a succinct exposition of the principal topics 

 of the whole system, and may easily be committed to memory. 

 It is written in the well-known Anustup metre. The style, 

 however, is not poetical at all, but that of the most sober prose, 

 and nowhere is the attempt made to combine the graces of 

 imagination with philosophical method. 



But unfortunately we know not hi 

 who he was, where he lived, and the age in which he flourished. 



Raya Rajendra Candra Sastri Bahadur in the preface to his 

 translation of the Bhasapariccheda and its commentary, pub- 

 lished in 1904, says that the author's age, birthplace, etc., are 

 absolutely unknown. But his name betrays a Bengali origin. 

 The author himself simply says that his father's name was 

 Vidyanivasa and that he wrote the commentary for the sake of 

 Rajiva, who may be either a son or a pupil. From Babu 



* J 



Nagendra Natha Basu 



known 



was 



of Akhandala, which was respected all over Bengal, that he was 



20th 



hanas that came to Bengal in Vedavanaiigasake, that is, Saka 



654 or 7 



was 



that his grandfather was Ratnakara Vidyavacaspati. that his 



