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Many wonderful instances of the feats of memory are forthcoming in the history of India. Pre-eminently the literature of the Jain sect, an old religious cult, has chronicled such instances. famous Jain encyclopædist, is
many
Hem-chandra, the
one of them. He lived in the He was born in
middle of the the northern
when he was six
eleventh century. part of Western India. His parents were Jains. His mother once took him with her to a Jain monk, years old. The monk was seated in the monastery on a table-like raised seat with a blanket spread over it. He looked at the boy with some interest, but the latter instead of performing the usual obeisance to the monk made himself comfortable on the seat by the monk's side. This the monk took to be a sign that the boy was going to be a great man. So he asked the mother if she would not give her child to him as his disciple and explained to her the reasons of his proposal. The mother oscillated for some time between parental love and a desire that the boy should be a great benefactor of the Jain sect. Ultimately reason triumphed over emotion and she gave her child to the monk to be initiated as his disciple. Hem-chandra thus entered the life of monkhood at the early age of six. As years went on, he became proficient in the sacred lore and at the age of twenty-one he became the spiritual head of the Jain people. History further tells us that he converted Kumara-pala, a prince
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