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Narrative Literature in Jain Māhārāṣṭrī
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Viseṣāvasyakabhäşya of Jinabhadra. He wrote the life of Neminatha the 23rd Tirthamkara in the Präkrit epic called Neminathacarita in 5000 Gāthās.
One of the pupils of this Hemacandra was Śrīcandra. In his life as a householder, he appears to be a state officer in the reign of King Siddharāja. His big epic, the Munisuvratasvāmicarita, which includes the story of Rāma also, was written in A. D. 1135, at the request of one Dhavala of the Poravāda family, in the town of Asavallipura. At the end, we have his Prasasti giving much useful information about his contemporaries.
A co-student of this Śrīcandra was Lakṣmaṇagani who is the author of the big work Supäsanähacariya, of some 8000 Gāthās. From the end of the work, we know that, he wrote it in A. D. 1142. It describes the life of the 7th Tirthankara, giving his earlier lives, wherein he acquires the good merit to be born as a Jina. A major portion of the work is devoted to the preachings of Jina, after he has obtained omniscience; but even this part is made interesting by the introduction of so many stories to illustrate the various vows of Jainism, a fact showing clearly the religious spirit dominating all the writings of Jain. monks. The style of the work is flowing and possesses a charm of its own when he is describing some supernatural objects. The writer's skill of adapting sound to the sense can be seen in his description of the miserly merchant; though he is unable to come out of the dry narratives of a host of bare names, he exhibits much poetic skill when he comes to describe the Abhiseka of the prophet on mount Meru.
About this time lived another Śrīcandra who belonged to the Candragaccha, and was a pupil of Devendrasūri. He composed his Sanatkumāracarita of 8127 Ślokas in A. D. 1157. In the beginning he refers to Haribhadra, Siddhamahākavi, Abhayadeva, Dhanapāla, Devacandra, Säntisūri, Devabhadra, and Hemacandra of Maladharigaccha. The story of Sanatkumāra, the sovereign King, is full of romantic and supernatural elements. He was carried away by a horse and deserted into a dense forest, where he met with a number of difficulties from which he comes out successful, and obtains in the manner of a true romance, so many daughters of Vidyadharas as his wives.
Another contemporary writer is Haribhadra belonging to the Vatagaccha, and a pupil of Śrīcandra. His patron was minister Pṛthvipāla, of the two Solanki Kings Siddharāja and Kumārapāla. He is well-known for his Ap. work Neminähacariu written in A. D. 1159, in the same year when Kumarapala was converted to Jainism by Hemacandra. He also wrote a big