________________
points to the same fact. About the Dhakkada family we know little more than that it must be identical with the tribe Dharkata, whose name is found on an inscription of Tejapala, 1230 A. D., at the Dilwara temple built by that king on mount Abu.
3
These are the bare facts that we know about our poet, and they do not at all enable us to say when he must have lived. He should not, however, be confused with another poet of the same name, who lived at Dhara during king Muñja's reign, and wrote the Rsabha pancaśikā, Tilakamañjarī and Paialacchināmamālā (the last one written for his sister Sunadri, at the time the king of Mälava attacked Manyakheța in Samvat 10299). As he praises Brahmadeva (पुरिसृत्तमनाभिसंभवं देवं), he must have yet been a Brahmin when he wrote his lexicon. The other works were written after he had become a Jain. This fact and his father's name Sarvadeva, must once for all distinguish him from our Bania-poet.
Jacobi1 has compared the language of our poet with that of Haribhadra of the Neminahacariu, and thought that it might be more archaic; but he is not ready to base any chronological conclusion on this fact. As the Neminā kacariu is not available to us, we can not pass any judgment in this matter. Jacobi however thinks that the motive of the nidana,11 which appears in Sandhi 20, has a distinct model in the same motive in Samaraiccakaha of the older Haribhadra. And as the older Haribhadra lived, according to Jacobi, in the second half of the 9th century, our author must come later, say in the 10th century at the earliest. The similarity of motive may perhaps be a good corroborative argument, but it can not be the main conclusive argument. Jacobi himself has very cautiously worded his theory. "Dhanapala könnte also, die Richtigkeit obiger Annahme vorausgesetzt, frühestens in 10. Jahrhundert geschrieben haben-Dhanapala could have, therefore, presuming the correctness of the above hypothesis, written in the 10th century at the earliest." Again, by the bye, the older Haribhadra, as Muni Jinavijayaji1 has conclusively proved, lived and wrote between 705 and 775 A. D., i. e. a century earlier than the date accepted by Jacobi. So that until some positive evidence comes up, we can not settle the date of our author with any amount of certainty. But one or two considerations might be thrown out. (1) The Apabhramśa of Dhanpala seems
8
Jacobi, Op. Cit. Introduction p. 6. 9. विक्कमकालस्स गए अउणत्तीत्तरे सहस्सम्मि | मालवनरिन्दधाडिए लूडीए मन्नखेडम्मि etc.
10 Op. Cit. Introduction p. 3.
11 Op. Cit. Introduction p. 6.
12 In his paper on 'the Date of Haribhadrasuri' read at the First Oriental Conference, Poona, Nov. 1919, and printed in the Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka I.
