Contribution of Jainas to Sanskrit and Prakrit Literature

Author(s): Vasantkumar Bhatt, Jitendra B Shah, Dinanath Sharma
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad

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Jain Contribution to Sanskrit Literature
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pupil Lokasena in the reign of Rastrakuta king Krsna II, Akalavarsa, on 23rd June 897 (Saka 828).
Parasvābhyudaya is a poem in imitation of Kalidasa's Meghasandesam. The last lines of the verses of the latter are taken and the first three lines are added. The poem deals with the story of Parsvanatha, the 23rd Tirthankara.
Jinasena's poetry is of a high order and often equals if not surpasses the beauty of Kalidasa's expressions.
3. Dhananjaya was son of Vasudeva and Sridevi. He was a Jain. By his time Dvisandhāna, or poem of double entendre narrating different tales in the same expression became, as it were a generic name. Dandin inaugurated it and his poem of that name is mentioned by Bhoja in his Śringaraprakasa, but it is not now available. Subandhu adapted the device to prose and his Vasavadatta indicated the heights to which a poet can work upon the innate excellence of Sanskrit vocabulary, to express his imagery in brief punning phrases. Dhananjaya followed and he narrated the story of Ramayana and Mahabharata at a time in his Dvisandhana in measures at once fluent and heavy. He is conscious of his merit and deems himself almost a combination of Valmiki and Vyasa, who, with Dandin, were in his mind the only three poets. He classes his work an one of the three gems, as unblemished as Akalanka's Nyāyasastra and Pūjyapāda's. Vyakarana. He praises Anandavardhana and Ratnakara, is euloguised by Somadeva and Jalhana and is quoted by Vardhamana. He must therefore have lived in the 9-10th centuries A. D. He also wrote a lexicon Dhananjayamālā.
4. Hemacandra was born at Dhandhuka in Samvat 1145 (1088 A. D.) and was the son of Chachiga Sresthi and Pahini. When his father was away, a monk Devendrasūri of the Vajra śākha asked his mother to give away the child then 5 years old, to be brought up in the monastic order. The mother parted with him very willingly and he was initiated under the name of Changdeva. His father was put out at the news and discovered the son, when it was too late, allengrossed in his ascetic serenity. To demonstrate his powers, he set his arm in a blazing fire and his father found to his surprise the flashing arm turned into gold. Thence came the appellation Hemacandra. He studied under Devacandrasuri of Purnatalliyagaccha. He was consecrated in Sam. 1154 and made a sūri in thirteen years later. At the court of Anihillavid in Guzerat he spent many years under the patronage of kings Jayasimha Siddharaja (1094-1143