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COMPREHENSIVB HISTORY OF JAINISM
Nemicandra's, who like him, was a disciple of Abhaya. nandin. Several other later Digambara writers, including Ašādharat and Dāmodara 55, have also remembered him in their works. The poet has informed us that he belonged to Deśl gana and names his three spiritual predecessors, namely Abhayanandin, Bibudhaguņanandin and Guņanandin.66 He further claims that he was a great logician and earned fame by destroying the bad arguments (kutarka) of others. This work, like any mahākavya, runs to 18 cantos and it is primarily based on the relevant section of the celebrated Uttarapurāņa (chapter 54) of Guņabhadra. It has altogether 1611 verses and it relates the story of his seven births (bhava). However most of his descriptions are conventional, and unlike the poems of Vādirāja, this poem is another colourless addition to the vast mediocre mass of Jain poetry.
A contemporary of Vădirāja was Mallisheņa, who definitely belonged to Karņāțaka. Several of his works are known; they are-Mahapurana, Nagakumärakāvja, Bhairava-Padmavatikalpa, Sarasvati-Mantrakalpa, Jvālinikalpa, Kāmacāndalikalpa etc. The only work that gives a definite date is the Mahapurāņa57, which was completed according to the Prasasti of that poem, in Śaka 969 corresponding to 1047 A.D. It is also called by the name Trishashțisalākapurāņa.58 According to the Prašasti of this unpublished work, the poem was completed in the tirtha of Mulgund. We have already seen that Mulgund, of Dharwar district, was connected with the religion of the Jinas, from at least 902 A.D. Other Jain records also, as already noted by us, have been found from this place. Mallishena was the disciple of Jinasena, who was the disciple of Kanakasena and the latter of Ajitasena, who was the guru of the famous Cāmundarāya. The Mahāpurāņa of Mallisheņa bas 2000 verses and it gives a short account of all the 63 remarkable men of the Jain mythology. His other work, the Nagakumārakāvyao2 is a short poem of 507 verses and five cantos,
