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Dr. Charlotte Krause : Her Life & Literature
Aśvāvabodha-Śakunikā-vihāra, it stands to reason that it would only be up to V.S. 1378 at the utmost, that it could have answered the description of our hymn as a Jaina shrine of miraculous sanctity and inaccessibility to profanation.
On the other hand, the hymn, as pointed out previously, suggests a firm structure, probably in stone, by referring to its walls as big, massive, and well-founded, and thus chronologically presupposes the re-erection in stone of the old wooden temple effected by Ambada on the advice of Hemacandra. This fact would indicate that the terminus a quo for its composition is given by the year of Hemacandra's ordination, viz., V.S. 1154. If, however, the reading “Tapākūpāra' in its last stanza is correct, this would probably suggest that the poet belonged to the Tapā Gaccha, and the latter name having been created as late as in V.S. 1285, that the hymn could not have been composed prior to that date.
The colophon, anonymous and undated like the hymn itself, proclaims the latter to be a work of 'Jñānasāgara Sūri’. Unfortunately, no bearer of this name is so far known to have flourished in the specified period, viz., between V.S. 1285 and 1378. The earliest Jñānasāgara Sūri whom our present records mention, is the distinguished disciple of the 49th (or 50th ) Tapā Gaccha pontiff Devasundara Sūri, mentioned himself, by a certain tradition, as the next pontiff, and as succeeded, in his turn, by his brother-disciples Kulamandana and Somasundara, while another tradition does not count him as a pontiff47. This Jñānasāgara Sūri was born in V.S. 1405, ordained as a monk in 1417, as an Ācārya in 1441, and died in 1460. He is known as the author of the following works :
1. Avacūri to the 'Oghaniryukti' in V.S. 143968, 2. Avacūrņi to the 'Avaśyaka-sutra' in V.S. 1449. 3. Avacūrņi to the 'Uttarādhyayana-sūtra' in V.S. 1441. 4. 'Munisuvrata-stava'. 5. 'Ghanaughā-navakhanda-Pārsvanātha-stava'. 6. 'śāśvata-caitya-stavana'69.
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