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CXLII
Kavyanusasania
probably a disciple of Govindāchārya who is referred to as a man of versatile learning. Mahīpāla became a master of Vyakaraṇa, Nyāya, and Dharmaşāstra. After finishing his education, he became a Jaina monk and and became famous as Sūrāchārya.
As a young man this Sūrācharya was a terrific task - master of his pupils who once complained about his harshness to the elder Guru. The elder Guru rebuked him for his impetuous nature and asked him to show the power of his intellect by conquering the learned assembly of Bhoja. The young dialectician understood the taunt and expressed his determination to proceed to Dhārā which he afterwards did with the permission of his Guru, and his maternal cousin king Bhīma, who sent him there as his representative. His intellectual feats are decribed at length in the Prābhävakacharita. +
A royal Purohita in ancient India was a persona grata. In the reign of Bhīma I this position was occupied by one Someşvara. This gentleman appears to be a man of very liberal outlook. It was through his intercession that Jaina monks known as Suvihita or Vasativadins got a footing in Anahilla pura, which was a stronghold of the Chaitya-vasin Jaina monks from the time of Vanarāja who was brought up, as we saw, by the Chaityavāsin monk Silagunasūri. The Suvihitas or the Vasativādins practised more rigorously the discipline of Mahāvīra while the Chaityavasins were like the abbots or the heads of Mathas of other Hindu sects who led a life of ease and luxury. Artistic culture as well as harsher intellectual disciplines were fostered
+ See pp. 245-261.
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