Ancient Jaina Hymns

Author(s): Charlotte Krause
Publisher: Oriental Institute

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REMARKS ON THE TEXTS
seize the Sûri who dared compete with him. The Acārya, persecuted, took to flight, was however arrested, and kept in confinement, till the Jaina community purchased his freedom at the exorbitant ransom of 12,000 "tankā."
The Sûri's influence can further be judged from the statement contained in the above mentioned “Laghuposālika-pattāva!”, that he ordained 500 persons as monks and nuns, and in Devavimala Gaại's statement, contained in his,''Mahāvīra-patta-paramparā”, that 1800 monks obeyed his orders. Other sources relate that all his monks strictly followed the ancient ritual which he had revived in V. S. 1556. Besides, a glance on the Jaina literary history of his period reveals that many of the outstanding writers and poets of the latter were his pupils or grand-pupils. This fact has been duly stressed by Muni Caturavijaya, on the basis of the huge genealogical tree of this Sūri's retinue prepared by him.'
As his successor as head of the Tapā Gaccha, the Sūri had nominated Anandavimala, his pupil, on whom he had bestowed the title of Acârya in V. S. 1570. It seems however that later he changed his mind, and nominated, in his stead, another disciple, Saubhāgyaharsa, in 1583. Yet when Hemavimala Sūri died in that very year, Anandavimala was generally accepted as the 56th pontiff, while from Saubhāgyaharşa, a new line branched off, known as the Laghu-Pausālika Gaccha.
That Hemavimala Sūri, though not a habitual writer, was a scholar of profound erudition and a gifted poet, is obvious from the only Sanskrit creation from his hand that has been known so far, viz., his“ Pārsva(1) J. St. Sand., II, Introduction, p. 113 ff. and table facing p. 122.
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