Gayādhara

In an earlier version of this blog piece, I have vented my frustration over not knowing which of the three different orthographies found in secondary sources should I choose, namely, Gayādhara, Gayadhara, and Gāyadhara. I also wondered if any one of these is attested in Sanskrit sources. I even speculated if Gayadhara were not a better choice and that for now, if I must use, I will use Gayadhara. But now I realize that I have been blissfully, nay, actually, painfully ignorant of the fact that Prof. Péter-Dániel Szántó has not only consistently used Gayādhara but also stated the following (p. 89, n. 31): “The name Gayādhara is attested, see e.g. the list of donees on the eighth-century Neulpur copper plate of Śubhākara (EI 15, p. 7, l. 27) and one Gayādhara is also mentioned on a Haihaya inscription (Banerji 1931: 29). Prof. Sanderson kindly pointed out to me further occurrences of this name, e.g. EI 14, no. 15 (the list also contains a ‘Gamgādhara’, i.e. Gaṅgādhara); EI 4, no. 20; EI 10, no. 5a, and EI 31, no. 11.” From now on, I will resort to the orthography Gayādhara and make a reference to Péter-Dániel Szántó, Selected Chapters from the Catuṣpīthatantra (1/2): Introductory Study with the Annotated Translation of Selected Chapters. PhD Thesis. Oxford: University of Oxford, 2012 [vol. 1], p. 89, n. 21.