Contribution of Karnataka to Jain Literature and Culture

Author(s): K Krishnamoorthy
Publisher: Z_Kailashchandra_Shastri_Abhinandan_Granth_012048.pdf

Page 6

People foolishly pursue the acquisition of poison-cures like gems, herbs, spells, drugs and so on because they do not know that all of them are really identical with Thy grace, though they recite all the time Thine own synonyms !
Dhanañjaya's Namamalá records in one of its concluding verses the greatness attained by three works of the masters Pujyapāda, Akalanka and Dhananjaya himself because they were mentioned together by scholars as the veritable 'Ratna-traya' or triple gems of Jainism:
प्रमाणमकलङ्कस्य पूज्यपादस्य लक्षणम् ।
धनञ्जयकवेः काव्यं रत्नत्रयमपश्चिमम् ।। A contemporary of Dandin and Dhananjaya seems to have been Śrīvardhadeva who wrote the glorious poem 'Cudamani' according to an inscription. He is said to have won the following tribute from the masterpoet Dandin :
जह्रोः कन्यां जटाग्रेण बभार परमेश्वरः । श्रीवर्धदेव संधत्से जिह्वाग्रेण सरस्वतीम् ॥
[Epigraphia Carnatica, II, No. 67] 'If Lord Siva bore Ganga on the top of his matted locks of hair, O Śrīvardhadeva, You bear Sarasvati at the tip of your tongue !
Unfortunately, the work is no longer extant.
The regime of the Rāştrakūta kings was equally favourable to the promotion of Jaina religion. As a result we see the rise of encyclopaedic commentaries ont he old canonical texts in this period. We also the creative boom in the composition of eligious poems (Purānas) eulogising all the great figures held sacred by Jainas. Virasena and Jinasena II were teacher and disciple who jointly completed the gigantic project of commentaries in the manipravāla, or 'gem-coral' style mixing both Sanskrit and Prakrit :
प्रायः संस्कृतभारत्या क्वचित् संस्कृतमिश्रया।
मणिप्रवालन्यायेन प्रोक्तोऽयं ग्रन्थविस्तरः ।। [टीकाकार-प्रशस्ति] Their extent exceeds some 100,000 ślokas. Their only Manuscript copy in plamleaf has been preserved up to date in the Jaina dāna-śálā-matha at Mūdabidre in Karnatak. From the colophons of the work we learn that the Dhavala of Virasena was completed in 780 A.D. and that the Jayadhavala of Jinasena II was completed in 837 A.D. While the Dhaqala on Satkhandagamu is published by Dr. H.L. Jain from Amroyti, the Jayadhavala portions (Kaşaya-pahudas) are published by the Jnanapith, Kashi (1947). (For fuller details see J. P. Jain, The Predecessors of Swami Virasena, Jaina Autiquary, XII, i-pp. 1-6).
The Harivaņģa-purāna by Jinasena I was completed in 783 A.D. It is also a very extensive religious poem, giving for the first time the Jaina version of Harivansa.
- 262 -