Jain Legend Vol 4

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

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of Varddham na S ri, Abhayadeva S ri, following the orders of his guru, travelled different places preaching the pure fundamental Jain doctrine. While explaining the scriptures to his disciples, Abhayadeva S ri realised that it was easy to explain the first two of the 11 Amgas (ek da mg) namely cr mga and S trak t mga in a simple and understandable manner as the commentaries on them written by crya 1 mka were available. But due to the loss of commentaries on the
remaining nine Amgas by c rya 1 mka, the student-monks experienced difficulty in understanding the meaning of scriptures and s tras with multiple and cryptic meanings. He decided in his heart of heart that he should undertake this work to facilitate smooth learning for the students.
Later Abhayadeva S ri went to Pa a a and camped in a place called 'Karaḍiha '. There he wrote commentaries (v ttis) on nine Amgas i.e. Sth n mga etc. The service he extended to the four-fold Jain congregation through his works has and will be written in golden letters in Jain history for ages to come.
Ya odevaga i, the disciple of c rya Ajitasimha of Niv tti lineage helped Abhayadeva S ri in the arduous task of writing commentaries on nine Amgas. Abhayadeva S ri mentioned this in his texts. Apart from this, in the citations of commentaries (v ttis) on Sth n mga, J t dharma Kath mga and Vip ka S tra he cited the name of Dro c rya with great respect and praised him as the editor of v ttis.
Abhayadeva S ri wrote v ttis of nine Amgas in A ahillapura Pa a a. This is mentioned by himself in some of his commendations of V ttis. As against this the author of Prabh vaka Caritra mentions that Abhayadeva S ri wrote his v ttis in Palyapadrapura.
Ascetics of Temple dweller tradition bred hatred towards the tradition of
c rya Varddham na S ri ever since Jine vara S ri made the king annul the ordinance banning the entry of all non-Temple dweller tradition Jain ascetics into the territories of A ahillapura Pa a a. Impressed by his humility and in-depth knowledge in scriptures even Pr dhan c rya of Temple dweller tradition showed immense respect to Abhayadeva S ri. In this context it is appropriate to narrate the information available in Kharatara gaccha V had Gurv val which is as follows:
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