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Shri Jaina Confertnce Herald.
I have no tendency to bring Haribhadra's date down, but on the contrary: if it could be proved that he lived about Samvat 530, the work I am editing, would greatly gain in importance for Indian Literature in general. But the positive proof on which you rely, is open to doubt. True, there is the tradition that he died in 535 or 585 Vikrama; but this tradi. tion is found in late authors who taking the date from older sources may have referred the year to a wrong era, being originally perhaps in Gupta era ( which would make Haribhadra an older contemporary of Siddharshi ) to Vikram era as the former era had gone out of use. Or they may have made some other mistake, which we can not control, because the original or nearly contemporaneous documents, which alone might be regarded as positive proof, are lost to us. For there is no doubt that in the part of the Gurvavalis and similar works, which treats of the period preceding the origin of a peculiar Gachchha, is not reliaable, being apparently made up from scanty dates in order to complete the lists of teachers down from Mahavira. To give an instance of this: in the Gurvavali of Munisundara it is stated that shortly after. 300 Vikrama, Virasuri consecrated the statue of Nemi in his temple of Nagpur. Virasuri was the successor of Manatunga who accordingly must have flourished some time before S y. 300.
Now according to common tradition given by Munichandra also sloka 35, Manatunga was a contemporary of Bana who was living about Sam. 580, as is a Historical fact. Therefore, there is an error of about 300 years in the Gurvavali, a similar error as I assume for Haribhadra's date. Now if Manatunga No. 21 lived in about sam. 580, Haribhadra, the friend of Manadeva No. 28, (sloka 40). must have flourished long after that time According to the Gurvavali. No. 22 Virasuri lived in 300. Vikr., and No. 31 Raviprabha in 700 Vikr., so that the average time of each suri in the interval is 44 years. therefore No. 28 Manadeva ( Haribhadra's friend ) must have lived about 6x44=264 years after Manatunya 580+264= about 844 Vikruma, which nearly agrees with the date which
