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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
and the last as Muni Suvrata. Hemacandra further deviates in giving the Daśami instead of the Dvādaśī as the 'Dikṣā-kalyāṇaka'. It would be futile to try to assess the mutual relationship and value of these variants, before further works dealing with Muni Suvrata's life, particularly all those monographs mentioned in H. D. Velankar's ‘Jinaratnakośa', will have become available in print.?
Only thus much may be mentioned that none of all the above post-canonical works follows the Samavāyānga-sūtra in including, in the list of pre-existence names, that of 'Sīhagiri', the only pre-existence name of Muni Suvrata which that Sūtra, and for the matter of that the canon, happens to mention.
The stanza of our hymn following this biographical sketch ( st. 16 ), extolls some of the stereotyped merits inherent in a Tīrthankara's preaching.
The next stanzas contain a very compressed summary of the legends of 'Aśvāvabodha-tīrtha' and 'Sakunikā-vihāra' (st. 17-21 ). This time-honoured place of pilgrimage of Munisuvrata at Broach is frequently mentioned in Jaina literature, and, though no longer existing as such, still reverently remembered. The very Āvaśyaka liturgy of the Svetāmbaras contains a reference to it in the much recited passage :
‘Jayau .... .... Bharuacchahim Muņisuvvaya!", i.e., "At Broach, Muni Suvrata ( 's image ) be victorious!”.
These are words of the Jagacintāmaņi-caityavandana'', which is believed to go back to the Lord Gautama Indrabhūti, Mahāvīra's direct disciple, and thus to be older than the Agamas themselves. This indicates that Broach must indeed have been a very ancient centre of Muni Suvrata worship. According to the legends referred to, it is even a 'Jivarta-Sāmitittha's", i.e., a Tīrthalı founded during the lifetime of the Tīrthankaral?, in this case nearly 12 lakhs of years ago. The reference to it in our hymn is, therefore, amply justified from the poet's stand-point.
The legends themselves are a popular subject of Jaina litera
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