Life of Hemchandracharya

SR No.: 006501
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Manilal Patel
Publisher: Singhi Jain Shastra Shiksha Pith Mumbai
Publication Year: 1936
Total Pages: 124
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, & Literature
File Size: 9 MB

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CHAPTER III.-HEMAÇANDRA AND JAYASIMHA-SIDDHARAJA
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hemacandra is said to be a work in five parts also in MSS. and there are, besides the Satras, still separate sections about the unddi-suffixes, the ganas, the roots and the gender of nouns, Besides this, the author has provided all the parts of his book with at commentary in two recensions," whose compilation falls, as some allusions to the victory of Jayasithha, and the Prasastis show, in the time of the reign of Siddharaja. Moreover, it is not only dedicated, as the title indicates, to the king Jayasimha-Siddharaja, but it also owes its origin to the request or command of the king. Quite similarly to the Prabhavakacaritra, it is said in the Prasasti, stanza 35, that Siddharaja being dissatisfied with the older grammars, requested the monk Hemacandra to write a new one and that the monk thereupon wrote it "according to the rules". Of the further statement of the Prabhavakacaritra that the inspection of the MSS., secured in Malva, was the immediate cause of the king's command, there is in fact no corroboration in other works. And yet this statement, considered on its own merits, is by no means improbable. For, when Jayasimhha cherished the anxious desire, as already mentioned, to immortalise the memory of his reign through literary works, it was then only natural that the perusal of Bhoja's works aroused his jealousy and induced him to call upon the best scholar in his empire to write similar works. The Siddhahemacandra is then a compilation from earlier grammars as opined by the tradition. It is based specially on the grammar of Sakatayana and on the Katantra, as Kielhorn has shown. In his commentary on the work, Hemacandra cites very often the views of "others", of "certain persons", et cetera; and with the help of glossaries-unfortunately incomplete ones-to the Commentary, Kielhorn has discovered that for the first five Padas, not loss then 15 different grammatical works had been used." For the whole work, the number is no doubt appreciably greater. From this, it appears quite credible that Hemacandra had collected materials from various places before he began his work, as also that his patron had been helpful in his task. Even at present the Indian princes provide their court-pandita almost regularly with MSS. and often manage to get them from afar at great cost. When, however, the Prabhavakacaritra opines on this point that all the MSS. came from the library of the temple of Sarasvati in Kasmir, it must be an exaggeration, originating in the author's too high a regard for the literary greatness of the land of Sarada. Merutunga's statement that the king managed to gather grammars from various lands, is more probable. Finally, one cannot declare as untrustworthy the statement made in both the sources that Jayasimha accelerated the circulation of the new Vyakarana, distributed the copies of the same and appointed a teacher in order to teach it to others. If the pains taken by the king Anandapala with a view to circulating the Sisyahitä written by his teacher Ugrabhüti, as described by Berūni, are without doubt historical, then similar statements about the works written at the command of the princes deserve full consideration. In the case of the Siddhahemacandra, it is to be further added that the grammarian Kakala-as the exponent of this grammar is called in the Prabhavakacaritra-is not only a historical personality, but really did make himself useful in expounding the work. One opinion of Kakkala is mentioned in the Nyasa on the commentary of Hemacandra, used by Kielhorn. Moreover, Gunacandra, a pupil of Devasüri, praises a great dialectician, poet and grammarian, by name Kakkalla who was a sort of a professor, and says that it was at the command of Kakkalla that he wrote the Tattvaprakasika or Haimavibhrama-an essay to interpret the Siddhahemacandra." Kakala, Kakkala and Kakkalla are the three Prakrit-forms produced partly through
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