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monks as well as laities to become righteous ones; examine their conduct and thought minutely in the light of provisions of canons. Haribhadra, tries to clear the misgivings, caused by wrong arguments of heretics, pertaining to some significant aspects of Jaina conduct. Another feature of this Astaka-prakaraṇa which attracts our attention is the self-imposed brevity or conditon of dealing one topic in eight verses only. We find that sometimes brevity is a handicap as it leads to the unintelligibility of the theme which can not be appreciated. But still this remains a very useful and valuable work of the genious Ācārya that is Haribhadra.
A Study of Extracts in Aştaka-prakarana
Haribhadra, an eminent scholar with the sound background of Brahmin tradition, after his conversion to Jaina faith, became authority in Šramanic tradition, too. His sound and deep knowledge of both traditions, as usual, proved to be great boon for him when he set upon to corroborate Jaina view-points, to refute those of others ( heretics ). His profound knowledge, of different traditions and multifarious disciplines, magnificently enriched by his genius, produced a great number of treaties of everlasting importance on the variety of subjects.
In Astaka-prakarana also, most frequently, he quoted or referred to, with remarkable ease or rather at his will to support the Jaina view-point or refute that of heretics, from Jaina, Vedic and Buddhist texts. In the process scores of verses, references, occurred there in. He has cited some verses alongwith author's name such as Mahāmati' ( Siddhasena Divākara ), in case of Nyāyāvatāra and ‘Mahātmanā” ( Maharși Vyāsa ), in case of Mahābhārata, some references with titles, e.g., Śivadharmottara and Larkāvatārasūtra'. But majority of the quotes or references occurred without divulging the both, i.e., the name of author and title. The quotations and references, from Jaina canons and exegetical literature, have been referred to as Jināgame", "Sūtramityādi '' and 'Sūtre 7. Here is an attempt to trace and analyse the sources of these verses etc. quoted or referred to in Astaka-prakarana.
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