Yasastilaka and Indian Culture

SR No.: 001609
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Krishnakant Handiqui
Publisher: Jain Sanskruti Samrakshak Sangh Solapur
Publication Year: 1968
Total Pages: 566
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, Story, Literature, & Culture
File Size: 16 MB

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YAŠASTILAKA AND INDIAN CULTURE
accordingly declared to be the best of religions, and the king decides to adopt the Jaina faith and enter the monastic order. The shortcomings of other religions and the excellence of Jainism form the sum and substance of Jaina propaganda, reminding one of a certain type of Missionary literature of modern times. Dogmatic assertions declaring the supremacy of the Jaina religion are, as is to be expected, frequent in medieval Jaina literature. Vādībhasimha, for instance, invites the ambitious man, desirous of the supreme beatitude, to betake himself to the sacred Jaina faith, 'a lion in destroying the elephants, the wrong creeds:' (Ksatracüdūmani 11. 105 ):
एवं निर्मलधर्मनिर्मितमिदं शर्म स्वकर्मक्षयप्राप्त प्राप्तमतुच्छमिच्छतितरां यो वा महेच्छो जनः । सोऽयं दुर्मतकुञ्जरमहरणे पञ्चाननं पावनं जैन धर्ममुपाश्रयेत मतिमानिःश्रेयसः प्राप्तये॥
Nothing could be more incorrect than to assume that the success of medieval Jainism was due solely to subtle and successful propaganda. The latter was no doubt an important factor, but the progress made by the faith and the royal patronage enjoyed by it under the Cālukyas, the Rāstrakūtas, the Gangas, and the Hoysalas as well as under certain feudatory rulers should be attributed rather to the zeal of a succession of saintly Jaina teachers and the confidence inspired by the intellectual eminence of scholars and writers like Akalamka, Virasena, Jinasena, Guņabhadra, Pampa, Ponna, Puşpadanta, Vădirāja, Prabhācandra and others. Such men could be expected to hold their own and maintain the prestige of their faith in a world of thought dominated by the leaders of the Brahmanical revival from Samkara and Kumārila to Udayana and Rāmānuja.
The old philanthropic ideals of Jainism seem to have been upheld in the tenth century. In a remarkable verse of Yasastilaka Somadeva gives expression to the religious ideal of the true Jaina: devotion to Jina, good will
1 The recently published Dhürlākhyāna of Haribhadra throws further light on the
character and composition of the Dharmapariksa texts. Haribhadra's Dhürtükhyāna, composed in Präkrit verses in the eighth century, is a lively satire on the Puranic legends, and as such allied to the Dharmaparīksās of Amitagati and others, but it is free from the theological bias and the propagandist tone of the latter. Jayarāma's Dharmaparikšā is no longer extant, but that of Harişeņa is available in manuscripts. Harişeņa says that the Dharmapariksā which was formerly composed by Jayarāma in Gathā metre is now composed by him in Paddhadiyā metre. A comparison of the Dhurtākhyāna and the Dharmapariksā of Amitagati reveals considerable similarities; and it is probable that Jayarama, who is so far the earliest known among the Dharmapariksā writers, utilized Haribhadra's work for sectarian purposes. See Dr. A. N. Upadhye's Introduction to Haribhadra's Dhurtākhyāna edited by Ācārya Jinavijayaji in the Singhi Jain Series No. 19. See also Dr. Upadhye's paper 'Harişeņa's Dharmaparākā in Apabhramśa' in the Silver Jubilee Number of the Annals of the B. 0. R. I., vol. XXIII, pp. 592-608.