Gandharavada

SR No.: 006739
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Esther A Solomon
Publisher: Gujarat Vidyasabha
Publication Year: 1966
Total Pages: 400
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 17

A copy of the Višeşāvaśyaka Bhāşya was prepared in Śaka era 531 i. e. 609 A.D. and kept in a Jaina temple in Valabhi. This agrees with the popularity of Jainism in Western India in and after the 5th century, and also shows that Jinabhadra must have moved about in the vicinity of Valabhi. As said before, this Višeşā vaśyaka Bhāşya along with its commentary which remained incomplete, was the last work of Jinabhadra whose date, th refore, cannot be fixed as later than 590 AD. This is supported by a traditional view that Haribhadra died in the year 1055 of the Vira Nirvāņa era (i. e. after Maha vīra), and Jinabhadra is said to have been a prominent teacher for 65 years after that and died in 1120 of the Vira Nirvāņa era, that is to say, in Vikrama era 650 or 593 A D. Muni Śri Jinavijayaji holds on the ground of two gāthas found at the end of a copy of the Višeşāvaśyaka bhāșya discovered in Jesalmer that the bhāşya was composed in Vikrama era 666. But as Ści Malavania has pointed out the gathās can only mean that the copy was prepared in Saka era 531 (or Vikrama 666), and placed in a temple. This again agrees with our date, Vikrama samvat 650, for the death of Jirabhadra.
The găthās are : Pamca sată igatīsā saganivakalassa vattamānassa, to cetta-puņnimãe budhadiņa sātimmi nakkhatte; rajje ņu pālaņapare si [lai] ccammi narabarindammi, balabhīņagarie imam mahavi......mi jiņabhavaņe.
According to tradition, Jinabhadra lived 104 years, so be can be said to have lived between Vikrama 546-650 i.e. 489-593 AD. This also tallies with the fact that no writer later than 590 A.D. has been referred to in the works of Jinabbadra, while he has been quoted profusely in the Nandicūrņi of Jinadāsa which was composed in Vikrama 733, i.e. in 676 A.D.
As to bis personality, we find his qualities described by the commentator of his Jītakalpasūtra. Muni Sri Jinavijayaji has given us an extract of tbis in his Introduction to the Jitakalpasūtra. The then eminent śrutad baras (knowers of the