Bhattacharya, Gadadhar

Bhattacharya, Gadadhar (17th century) post-Shiromani Nyaya philosopher, was born in Lakshmichapda village, Bogra district, son of Jivacharya, a follower of tantricism. Hariram Tarkavagish taught Gadadhar nyaya philosophy, and there are many popular stories on the scholarly relations between the teacher and his disciple.

Gadadhar annotated different books of Nyaya philosophy. His three most important annotations on raghunath shiromani are Anumanadidhititika (annotation on supposition theory), Nanavadavyakhya (explanations on Nanaism), and Bauddhadhikaradidhititika. Only some of his annotations on the chapters Shabda (sound) and Anuman (supposition) of Tattvachintamani (theories on thoughts) have so far been found. Similarly, only a part of Gadadhar';s annotations on Shabdamanyalokatika, Pratyaksalokatika, and Anumanalokatika are extant. His Kusumanjalitika has also been recovered. It is believed that Gadadhar wrote between 1640-60 AD. His annotations played a vital role in the practice of Nyaya philosophy, as it was almost impossible to understand the meaning of the original text without explanations.

Gadadhar';s commentaries are known as Gadadhari commentaries or simply Gadadhari. In addition to his commentaries, he is believed to have written 64 more books on logic, of which Shaktivada, Muktivada, Vyutpattivada, Visayatavada, and Vidhisvarupa are extant. Gadadhar';s contributions overshadowed those of the earlier Nyaya scholars jagadish tarkalankar and Bhavananda. [Suresh Chandra Banerjee] [Banerjee, Suresh Chandra Professor (retd) of Sanskrit, Calcutta University]