________________
SUSHIL JAIN: ON JAINA POLITY AND SOMADEVA'S NITIVAKYAMRITAM 7
However some of these works have not been firmly established as those of Somadevasūri. It is also important to distinguish him from other Somadevas, e.g., Somadeva Bhatta, writer of the famous Kathāsaritsāgara, who lived in the 11th century.
In the discussion following, therfore, we rely mainly on his two well-known and published works, viz. Yaśastilaka and Nitiväkyämstam as our sources for basic information about the author.
Our author (Somadeva) himself has provided bits of information, here and there, in his works, and in the colophons23 from which we are able to piece together a bit of author's life, lineage, teacher(s), benefactors, patrons etc. But as V. Raghavan points out :
One cannot always place full reliance on the significance of the mention or otherwise of an author's other works in a colophon or a prasasti in one of his works; that is, it is not necessary to assume that because the prasasti in the Nītivākyāmsta mentions the Yasastilaka, the former was written after the latter. Such would really be the fact only if scribes had not revised colophons and Prasastis to the annoyance of scholars wanting to trace the chronology of an author's works.24
Whatever may be the drawbacks of relying on infomation recorded in old manuscripts by contemporary and later scribes of the medieval period we have little choice but to construct the author's life and times from the only available sources.
Somadeva Sūri is not an entirely unknown figure in the history of Jaina literature, though his fame is "in a large measure due to modern research", 25 especially since Handiqui26 published his researches on the importance of Yasastilaka in Indian culture, in the late 1940s. A section of Yaśastilaka (chapters 6-8, known as 'Upāsakādhyayana)27 is an important piece of Digambara Jain Srābakācāra.28
23. "Which throw considerable light on his personal life and achievements".
Saletore, EIC, op.cit. vol. 4, p. 1368. 24. "Somadevasūri, author of Nitivākyāmsta, Yaśastilakacampū, etc.", New
India Antiquary, June 1943, p. 67. 25. Saletore. EIC, op.cit., p. 1369. 26. Yasastilaka and India Culture; or, Somadeva's Yasastilaka and aspects of
Jainism and Indian thought and culture in the tenth century. Sholapur:
Jain Sanskrit Samrakshaka Sangha, 1949. 27. Williams, Jaina Yoga, Delhi, MLBD, 1963, p. 21. 28. For a recent appreciation of Somadeva's Upasakadhyayana, see, Lath,
Mukund. 'Somadeva Suri and the question of Jain identity', in Carrithers and Humphrey (eds). The Assembly of Listeners : Jains in Society. Cambridge University Press, 1991. pp. 19-30.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
