Jain Journal 1968 04

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

Page 32

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JAIN JOURNAL
According to the Prabhāvakacarita when Kumarapala could not succeed in subduing Arnoraja, he offered worship at the suggestion of his minister Bahada to the image of Ajitanatha which was installed by the hands of Hemacandra. (vs 451-452)
Kumarapala, however, had no leisure up to VS 1207 (AD 1151) to think about religious or ethical things It was after his empire was consolidated that Kumarapala came in real touch of Hemacandra. This is how we may interpret the passage from the Mahaviracarita about Kumarapala
Kumarapala must have had great faith in Hemacandra His forecast about his future kingship given at a time when he had not enough to eat had come true Hemacandra was then famous as a learned man and much respected by his predecessor Jayasimha His great ministers like Bahada and others were Hemacandra's followers Thus Kumarapala was prepossessed in favour of Hemacandra As the contact continued from day to day, Kumarapala must have come more and more under the spiritual influence of Hemacandra After some time Kumarapala must have looked upon him as his guru
Just as Hemacandra composed the Siddha-Hema grammar at the request of Jayasımha, so according to his own testimony, he composed the Yogajāstra, the Vitarāgastutis and the Trisaştısalākāpurusacarita at the request of Kumarapala
From the fact that Hemacandra calls Kumarapala d Paramarhata in the prasasti of the Trışaştısalāk apurusacaria as also in the Abhidhānacintamani, we can infer that in Hemacandra's eyes Kumarapala by that time must be following the ethical code of Jainism to such an extent as to deserve that title
Here we might consider the question of Kumarapala's conversion to Jainism There is sufficient proof for one answer, viz , he was trying to follow the Jaina ethical mode of life that he regarded Hemacandra as his spiritual guru and offered worship at the Jaina temples might also be taken as real But if by conversion is meant that Kumarapala abjured the faith of his fore-fathers and gave up the worship of Siva and other Pauranic deities, it is contradicted by other historical facts First of all, we find, in the last canto of the Sanskrit Dvyābrayakävya, Kumarapala distinctly mentioning his devotion to Siva, and secondly in the inscription of Bhava-Brhaspati of the year VS 1229 (AD 1173), the Jast year of Kumarapala's reign, he is called 'Mahesvara-nepagrani', the foremost of Mahesvara kings' (v 47) From these facts, it becomes clear that though Kumarapala's mode of life was changed and though the old way of worshipping with animal-sacrifice was also