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202
Amrita
authors like Indrabhuti, Bhadrabāhu and his Vasudevacarita, Haribhadra's Samarādityakathā, Dākṣiṇyacinhasūri's Kuvalayamālā, and Siddharşi's Upamitibhavaprapañcakathā. It has many verses in Apabhraíśa dialect.
A year later, in A. D. 1104, śāntisūri a pupil of Nemicandra belonging to the Candrakula and the Brhat gaccha composed the Prthvicandracarita, at the request of his pupil Municandra. It has 7500 verses. In A. D. 1108 was written the Pārsvanāthacarita of Devabhadra a pupil of Prasannacandra, himself a student of the commentator Abhayadevasūri. The work was composed at Bhrgukaccha, and deals with the lives of the 23rd Tirthařkara.
In the 12th century, we find Hemacandra the great scholar of Gujarat writing his Kumārapālacarita??. He is one of the many-sided and fruitful writers, and he is as great a scholar as a good poet. To him, more than to anybody else Gujarat owes its greatness in literature. He was not only a writer of Jain works, but has also written text books on grammar, lexicography, poetics, metrics, and was well-known by his title of Kalikālasarvajña, which he eminently deserved. He was born in the year 1089 A. D. at Dhundukā a small town in Gujarat, as the son of a merchant. His parents were pious Jain lay-followers, and in his early childhood he was converted to that faith. As a Jain monk he spent the greater part of his life in the capital of Gujarat. His patron was first the Cālukya King Jayasimha Siddharāja ( A. D. 1094-A. D. 1143 ). His successor King Kumārapāla was converted to Jainism by him. After this Gujarat became the centre of Jain religion, and many of the acts of this King were directed by his teacher.
Considering the close relationship between King Kumārapāla and his famous teacher Hemacandra, we do not find much historical information in his work, as we should expect. In fact the motive that guided Hemacandra in writing his work was neither historical nor poetic, but purely grammatical. To illustrate his grammar called Siddha-Hemacandra after the names of both the writer and his patron, he composed a Dvyāśrayakāvya of which the Kumārapālacarita forms a part, and it is intended to illustrating his Prākrit grammar. As such the work shows no merit except that of supplying illustrations for the various rules in his grammar. The last two cantos are composed in various Prākrit dialects like Saurasenī, Māgadhi, Paisāci and Apabhramsa.
An elder contemporary of this writer was another Hemacandra belonging to the Maladhārigaccha, and a pupil of Abhayadevasūri. He is wellknown for his great work in the form of a commentary on