Comprehensive History Of Jainism

SR No.: 022803
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Aseem Kumar Chatterjee
Publisher: Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers Pvt Ltd
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 360
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

Page 274

248
A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
figures of the early medieval period. Not much is however known about his personal life. We only know that he was a native of Citrakūta (Chitor) and was a Brāhmaṇa by caste. He informs us that he obeyed the command of Jinabhata, a Svetāmbara ācārya, and was a pupil of Jinadatta, who belonged to the Vidyadhara kula. We further learn from the colophons of his works that he was a spiritual son of the nun Yakini Mahattarā. From Udyotana's Kuvalayamālā, 35 which was written in Saka 700, we learn that its author was taught the science of logic by Haribhadra, the author of several treatises. This Haribhadra is no other than our Haribhadra who was also a great logician, as we will see in a later chapter. Jacobi opines36 that Haribhadra in the later part of his life migrated to western Rajasthan and probably founded the clan of Porevals, who according to the Nemināthacariyu originated at śrīmāla (Bhinmal). That scholar further believes that Haribhadra, as a yati, probably wandered in various parts of India, including the eastern regions and learnt the logical system of the Buddhists in the Buddhist schools of these regions.
According to the Jaina tradition, Haribhadra was the author of some 1440 works, clearly an absurd figure. The earliest writer that refers to this figure is Abhayadeva who finished his tīkā on Haribhadra's Pañcāśaka in ad 1068. We have a list of 88 works of Haribhadra given by Muni Kalyānavijaya.37 A sketch of Haribhadra's life has been given in the Prabhāvakacarita, which is however not very reliable.38 Rājasekhara in his Prabandhakośa has also given a sketch of his life.
Haribhadra's fame as a creative literary writer rests chiefly on his Prāksta Samarāiccakahā,40 a work which the author himself describes as dharmakathā and which Winternitzfittingly terms a religious novel. The fortune of the hero Samarāditya is traced through his nine births (bhava). Underlying all the narratives, there is the Jaina doctrine of karman. For the study of the cultural, religious, and economic history of northern India of the eighth century AD, the work offers a unique scope. In the first Book there is a reference to the well-known Madana-festival. The second provides an interesting description of marriage of those days and mentions a nāga temple and also refers to the cloth of Cīna and Ardha-Cīna. The third Book refers to the philosophy of Cārvāka and in the fourth we not only have a reference to Tāmralipta port but also to Kațāhadvipa, which is also mentioned in the Cola inscriptions and the