Jain Journal 1968 04

Author(s): Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication

Page 13

KALIKALASARVAJNA
HEMACANDRA
M. WINTERNITZ
Kalikalasarvajna, 'The Omniscient of the Kal Age', was the title given to the great Jaina monk Hemacandra by his co-religionists, and he well-deserved this title and his fame on account of the astounding many-sidedness of his literary achievements. He was indeed one of the most versatile and prolific writers, both as a poet and as a scholar. It is due to him that Gujarat became a main stronghold of the Svetambara Jainas and has remained so for centuries, and that Jaina literature flourished there particularly in the 12th and 13th centuries. By his influence on the two Caulukya kings Jayasimha Siddharaja and Kumarapala he was able to direct, in some measure, the destinies and the cultural progress of his native country But not only Gujarat and the Jaina community owe a great debt of gratitude to Hemacandra, he has also a place of honour in general Sanskrit literature as a compiler of useful and important works on grammar, lexicography, poctics and metrics
Among his poetical works his huge epic on the 'Lives of the Sixtythree Excellent Men (Insaftitaläkāpuruşacarita) is perhaps best known. Though not without merit as a work of poetry, a mahākavya, as it 18 described by the author himself, yet its main purpose is instruction and edification For us it is invaluable as a store-house of ancient legendary lore and tradition. The appendix to this work, the Parisiştaparvan, also called 'Lives of the Series of Elders' (Sthavirävalicarita), is even moro important by its wealth of folklore and stories of all kinds He has preserved to us many popular proverbs, and in one of his stories even folk-songs in dialect
As a devout Jaina he also composed some hymns of praise (stotras). His 'Hymn to the Passionloss (Mahavira)', the Vitarāgastotra, 18 at the samo time a poctical manual of the Jaina religion.
Hamacandra is always more & scholar and a moralist than a poet though not without taste and considerable skill in the use of the kävya