History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v1.c6.s84.15

v1.c6.s84.15

As the Nṛsiṁhaprasāda relies upon the Mādhavīya and the Madanapārijāta, it is certainly later than 1400 A. D. As it is mentioned as an authority in the Dvaitanirṇaya of Śaṅkarabhaṭṭa and in the Mayūkhas of Nīlakaṇṭha it must be earlier than about 1575 A. D. If by the Dīpikāvivaraṇa which it enumerates among its principal authorities is meant the com. of Nṛsiṁha, son of Rāmacandrācārya, on his father's commentary of the Kālanirṇaya (which is most probable), then the Nṛsiṁhaprasāda must be later than about 1500 A.D. Dr. Bhandarkar⁹⁹⁸ says that Rāmacandrācārya lived about 1450 A. D. A ms. of the Dīpikāvivaraṇa was copied in *saṁvat* 1604 (1548 A. D.).⁹⁹⁹ The Benares Sanskrit College ms. appears to have been copied for Rāmapaṇḍita Dharmādhikārī at Benares, who is said to have been the father of Nandapaṇḍita¹⁰⁰⁰ (see sec. 105 below). At the end of several *sāras* either *saṁvat* 1568 (1511-12 A. D.) or 1569 occurs as the date.¹⁰⁰¹ This may be said to be the date of the actual composition of the work or of the copying of the ms. for Rāmapaṇḍita. It seems difficult to believe that Rāmapaṇḍita for whom the ms. was copied in 1511-12 A. D. was the father of the famous Nandapaṇḍita. We know that Nandapaṇḍita composed his Vaijayantī in 1623 A. D. Rāmapaṇḍita must have been a man of middle age before he could order the copying of a huge ms. like the Nṛsiṁhaprasāda. If he did this in 1511-12 A. D. his son could hardly have been alive 120 years later. Therefore it looks probable that the dates (*saṁvat* 1568 and 1569) are not the dates when the ms. was copied for Rāmapaṇḍita, but rather the dates of the composition of the original work or of the copying of the ms. from which Rāmapaṇḍita got his own ms. copied. At all events it is clear that the Nṛsiṁhaprasāda could not have been composed later than 1512 A. D. As the author was a minister of Nijāmasāha who ruled over Devagiri, it appears that he is referring to Ahmad Nizam Shah who ruled from 1490-1508 A. D. or to his son Burhan Nizam Shah (1508-1533 A. D.), most probably the former.¹⁰⁰² It may be taken as certain that the work was composed between 1490 and 1512 A. D.