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218
Amrita
Another of his hymn is called the Paramesthi-Stavanam and contains only 35 Gāthās.
Nandisena appears to be also a very old writer. Winternitz would place him as early as the 8th or 9th century. At any rate he is earlier than Jinaprabha (12th century), who calls him a very old and celebrated poet and considerably earlier than him. Tradition would make him a direct disciple of Lord Mahāvīra himself, a fact scarcely to be believed. His poem called Ajitaśānti-Stava is a hymn of praise addressed to the two Tirthankaras Ajita and sānti, and contains in its present form 40 verses, but which originally contained according to the opinion of his commentator, only 37 stanzas. Tradition further tells us that, while the poet was on his way to the pilgrimage of the mount Śatruñjaya where both these Tīrthankaras spent their rainy season, he conceived the idea of composing the present hymn addressed to these prophets.
We are more fortunate in knowing something of Dhanapāla the author of the Prākrit hymn Rsabhapancāśikā. Originally a Brahmin by birth, he was converted to the Jain faith by his brother Sobhana who is famous for his Sanskrit hymn in a very ornamental and scholarly style. Dhanapāla's father was Sarvadeva. Dhanapāla appears to have been patronised by the two kings of Dhārā Siyaka and Vākpati, even though Merutunga relates in his Prabandhacintāmani another tradition which makes him a contemporary of Bhojadeva, the famous king of Dhārā and adds something about his family relations, about his quarrel with his brother and the final reconciliation. From the conclusion of his Prākrit lexicon Pāialacchināmamālā we know that he lived and wrote that work for his sister Sundari about A. D. 972-73. Afterwards he was converted to Jainism and then composed his hymn to show his respect for his newly adopted faith.
The best of Dhanapāla's hymns is undoubtedly the 50 stanzas in honour of Rsabha the first prophet of Jainism. It is composed in Gāthās and describes in its first part (Gäthās 1-20) some important incidents in the life of Rsabha, like his birth in the house of Nābhi, his ceremonial bath on the mount Aştāpada, his promulgation of the various arts and crafts, his bountiful gifts, his Dīksā ceremony, his subduing the non-Aryan tribes, his obtaining the omniscience, and things like the Samavasarana which is in fact a general theoretical outline of the life of most of the Tirthankaras. In the second part of the last 30 verses the author has greater freedom of thought in describing the greatness of his religious teacher and shows great poetic skill in depicting