Hemchandracharyas Literary Accomplishment

Author(s): Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: Jaibhikkhu Sahitya Trust

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Hemchandracharya's Literary Accomplishment
Hemchandracharya's Literary Accomplishment 0 7 spirit that kept Gujarati wakeful for years. Without him one cannot think of the modem characteristics of the people of Gujarat ahimsa, love, pure conduct and honest traditions. Hemchandracharya was a great man, a greeter monk and the greatest cultural enthusiast. The culture, the language, the courage to speak and all that he gave flows through the veins of Gujarat today. He, therefore deserves to be famous in history as a great Gujarati."
the three languages - Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhransha. One finds Hemchandracharyas books written in all these three languages. Besides he compiled dictionaries and wrote grammers in all these three languages and provided valuable means of access to knowledge. As a result Hemchandracharya's works came to be esteemed by non-Jain scholars too. Commentators of prosody such as Halayadha cite direct references of Hemchandracharya's works.
Hemchandracharya's saintliness brightened Siddharaja's bravery and Kumarpal's love of culture. Without Hemchandracharya the golden period of Solanki era would be confined only to the material properity of the people. It is doubtful whether the moral spirit that assimilated knowledge and culture would have developed. The able man of culture who influenced the kings with his light or erudition and brightened all fields of the life of people with that light was Hemchandracharya. It was Hemchandracharya, the cultural artist, who made co-ordination at various levels of literature, history, art grammer, logic, religion, worldly life, ascetic life and of the ruler and the ruled. That is why Dhumketu says:
Rather than say that Hemchandracharya did his immense literary activity under the patronage of Siddharaj and Kumarpal it would be truer to say that the kings were benefited by his activity. He was an honourable guide counsellor of both these kings. He imbibad lore of learning in Siddharaj and love of culture in Kumarpal. The pair of Siddharaj-Kumarpal and Hemchandracharya is above comparison with the pairs of King Vikram and Poet Kalidas and of King Bhoj and Poet Dhanpal Heis relationship with the King is to a large extend comparable to that of Swami Ramdas and Chhatrapati Shivaji.
With the help of Siddharaj and Kumarpal he found out numerous namuscripts of old books. A group of his learned disciples such as Ramchandra, Gunchandra and Mahendra helped, Hemchandracharya in finding the manuscripts. What an atmosphere of pursuit of learning! It is indeed romantic to think
"Without Hemchandracharya one cannot think of the birth of the Gujarati language. Without him one cannot think of the cultural