Jain Journal 1968 04

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

Page 27

APRIL, 1968
175
Oh Siddha, let your majestic elephant move fearlessly The Diggajas (Elephants of Directions) might tremble Don't miad them, for, you bear (the burden) of the earth
The king who was intelligent enough understood the meaning and was pleased with the compliment He asked Hernacandra to see him in the afternoon for diversion (vs 65-69)
Thus on the authority of the Prabhāvakacarita, which there is no sufficient reason to doubt, these two remarkable men of the age-one a king and the other a monk-got into touch with each other. The contact must have soon developed into intimacy and mutual admiration The meeting of two such men could not but be of great consequence The next occasion of their meeting that is referred to in the Prabhayakacarita is the return of the conquering hero after subjugating Malava when representatives of different sects gathered to congratulate the king. Hemacandra, who was also there representing the Jaina sect, recited a verse full of resonant grandeur welcoming the king When the verse was explained as if the exploit of the king was being explained'--the king became mightily pleased and invited the Surt again to his palace (vs 70-73)
This meeting must have taken place between the last months of VS 1191 and the beginning of VS 1192 (AD 1136)
The first literary fruit of the royal friendship was the great grammar of the Sanskrit language and the Prakrit dialects known as Siddha-Hema. candra-sabdānusāsana In the last verse of the prašastı at the end of the grammar, Hemacandra himself tells us how he came to write it "Munı Hemacandra composed this grammar-faultless and complete --being repeatedly requested by him (Sri Siddharaja) who was tormented by grammars very lengthy, difficult to grasp, and incomplete." (v 35) From the verses devoted to Siddharaja in the prasasti, it becomes quite clear that the grammar was completed after the Malava victory it is highly probable that Jayasimha requested Hemacandra to compose a good grammar after his return from Malava The Prabhāvakacarita gives a long account describing the occasion which was responsible for the writing of this grammar which is not only not contradictory to what Hemacandra himself says, but which supplements it and which appears to be highly probable
'Once when the officers were showing the king books from the Library of Avantı, his (Jayasimha's) eyes fell upon a book of