Catalogue of Sanskrit and Prakrit Manuscripts In the Central Provinces and Berar

SR No.: 011132
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Rai Bahaddur Hiralal
Publisher: Central Provins and Berar
Total Pages: 887
Language: English, Sanskrit
Classification: Catalogue
File Size: 27 MB

Page 35

need any introduction here, and it has also now been published, It narrates at length the life of the first Tirtbarh kara and is more or less an encyclopædia of Jain mythology and Siddhanta. The work was left incomplete by Jinasena. It was completed by his pupil Gunabhadracharya after him.
Jinasena is also the author of a short poem "Parsvabhyudaya kavya". As the name indicates its subject matter is the life of Parsvanátha, the 33rd Tirtharkara. The last line of each of its verses is taken from the Meghadata of Kalidasa. Speaking of this work Professor Pathak rightly observes that "the poem is one of the curiosities o! Sanskrit literature. It is at once the product and mirror of the literary taste of the age. Universal judgment assigns the first place among Indian poets to Kalidasa, but Jinasena claims to be considered a higher genius than the author of the "Cloud Messenger" ( Meghadata). (C/. J. B. B.R, A. S. 1894, p. 224.]
The Adi-purana and Parsvabhyudaya-kavya bear no dates of their composition. But another work of this linasena is also known. It is a portion of the "Javadhavala tika" which he wrote to complete the work begun by his guru Virasena. From the reported prasasti of this work we know that Jinasena completed it in the Saka year 760 during the reign of Amoghavarsha I. Only a single manuscript of this work is now known to exist at Malabidri (South India) Ādi-puraņa must have been writter soon after the above-mentioned date.
Yet another work of Jinasena is Jina sahasranama. Karanja manuscripts of this work bear a commentary by Bhavasena. In the Catalogue will be found two other works attributed to the authorship of Jinasena. These are Trivargachara and Jivasamhita. The first of these has been subjected to a critical examination by Mr. Jugalkiśor Mukhtar, who has shown that numerous verses have been quoted in it from works of the 14th and 15th centuries, and that the book was probably patched up in the 17h century. It appears that Jinasambita was also written by this later Jinasena.
Gunabhadra tells us that the Adi-purana has been based on a prose work of Kaviparameśvara. Jinasena has also paid his respects to this poet in the following verse of Adi. purina >
स पूज्यः कविभिलोंके कवीनां परमेश्वरः । वागर्थसंग्रहं कृत्स्नं पुराणं यः समग्रहीत् ॥ ६॥
But nothing further is known about this author or his work. l'erhaps he is to be identified with the Kanarese poet Kavi Parameshthi, who has been referred to by Adi Pampa.