Comprehensive History of Jainism Volume II

Author(s): Aseem Kumar Chaterjee
Publisher: Firma KLM Pvt Ltd

Page 16

COMPREHENSIVB HISTORY OF JAINISM
Another celebrated Jain philosopher of the early 12th century, who was patronised by Jayasimba, was the great Devasūri, who became a thorn in the flesh of the non-Jain philosophers, for his great debating skill. The career of this savant has been described in several Jain texts including the Prabhāvakacarita+1, Prabandhacintāmaņits, Purātanaprabandhasangraha 8 and also the well-known play Mudritakumudracandra.** According to the Prabhāvakacarita*b, Devasűri (also simply called Srideva) scored several victories over his opponents in different towns of modern states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. At Satyapura, he defeated Sāgara of Kashmir ; the Saiva philosopher Dhandha was vanquished at Dhavalaka ; at Nāgapura (Nagaur) he succeeded in defeating the Diganbara philosopher Gunacandra. At Citrakūta he disposed of the Bhāgavata philosopher Sivabhūti and at Gopagiri, Gangadhara. Devasūri, according to the same text, also scored victories over Brahmin philosophers Padmākara at Puşkariņi and Krşpa at Bbțgukṣetra. At least one of these successes of Devasūri, mentioned in the Prabhāvakacarita, is confirmed by Mudrita-Kumudacandra.48 That play informs us that the Digambara Gunacandra was defeated by Devasūri in the court of Arnorāja of Sapādalakşa, who was the patron of Yaśascandra, the author of this drama.
However, the greatest achievement of Devasūri was his victory over Kumudacandra, the great Digambara dialecti. cian of Karpāța country and the preceptor (guru) of Jayakesin, the maternal grandfather of Jayasiṁba.47 The debate was held in the Vikrama Samvat 1181 at Pattana in the court of Siddharāja. It appears that several savants of Gujarat, including the poet Śrīpāla and Kalikalasarvajña Hemacandra, were present during this debate between the two great giants, belonging to the two major Jain seets.* 8 Before the debate, a mutual agreement was made that if Deyasuri was vanquished, the Svetāmbaras should adopt the views and practices of the Digambaras, but if the