Madanrekha Akhyayika

SR No.: 002639
Original Sutra Author: Jinbhadrasuri
Author: Bechardas Doshi
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1973
Total Pages: 304
Language: Sanskrit, Hindi
Classification: Book_Devnagari & Literature
File Size: 15 MB

Page 25

like the installations of idols of Jaina Tyrthankaras, consecretion of faina monks to suri-hood, initiation of novices to Jaina monk order, and religious festivals like Mālotsava. It is in response to Bilhana's desire to listen to the sacred life-story of saintly king Nami, one of the canonized Pratyekabuddhas in Jainism, that our author undertook to compose the MRA."
None of the other works, if any, of Jinabhadrasuri seems to be recorded in any of the published catalogues of manuscripts. Dr. M. Krishnamachariar has noticed a commentary by one Jinabhadrasuri on Kalidasa's Kumāra. sambhavam.89 But we have no means at present to determine the identity of that Jinabhadra with the author of the MRA.
However, we can gather a few clues to some of the facets of the scholarly and religious personality of our Jinabhadrasūri from the MRA. A casual look at a few prose and verse passages immediately reveals his mastery of the Sanskrit language which he wields with facility both in ornate prose as well as verse, as is testified from his solid grounding in Sapskrit grammatical tradition, probably as embodied in Hemacandra's famous Śabdānuśāsana which he must have studied at the hands of his preceptor Candraprabhasūri who was a profound scholar of the subject, capable of composing a couple of treatises like Śabdambhoja-bhaskara and Karaka-mjmāṁsā. His knowledge of Sanskrit poetics must have possibly extended beyond Hemacandra's Kavyānuśāsana, which at least he seems to have mastered thoroughly, if not the works of his contemporaries like Ruyyaka and Vāgbhatta too. His flair for double entendre could not be accounted for in the absence of his deep study of Hemacandra's twin lexical works like Abhidhana-cintamaņi and Anekārtha-saṁgraba, if not Amarasimha's Namalingänusasanam and Puruşottamadeva's Trikāndajeşa too. Being a Jaina monk who is generally expected to be something like an all-rounder in relation to his disciples and followers, he seems to have known, at least in elements, the basic principles and practice of Astrology and Ayurveda, as is adduced to from some of his imageries connected with the said lores.90 His references to the mess (rasavati) as well as to some of the mythological characters like Bhavani and Girysa, Cupid's rebirth at the hands of śiva, crossing of the ocean by Hanuman and to Sridhara, Vaikuntha, Maheśvara, Bhima, Sita, and Ravaņal might adduce to his acquaintance with Pakaśastra and Kalidasa's Kumarasambhavam and Raghuvamsam, and perhaps to Valmiki's Ramayana and Vyasa's
87. Cf. JPPS, Parisista 8. 88. MRA, Intro. Vs. 32–38. 89. HCSL, p. 118, ft. nt, 15. 90. Cf. MRA, Intro. vs. 26 : ibid., pp. 67-68. 91. MRA, p. 13 (4ff.) ; 34 vs. 80 ; Intro. vs. 10 ; ibid., vs, 3; p. 18(5).