Jain Shwetambar Conference Herald 1915 Book 11 Jain Itihas Sahitya Ank

Author(s): Mohanlal Dalichand Desai
Publisher: Jain Shwetambar Conference

Page 76

274 h
Shri Jain Conference Herald.
Bhavnagar-India. 19th July 1907.
DEAR SIR,
To-day I briefly sketch an outline of the reply to your two letters respectively dated ths 14th November and 7th December 1906 addressed to me in connection with the question of Haribhadra Soori's date. The only excuse for my writing so late is my engagement elsewhere in the preparation for the solicitor's examination. Now I am free for the time being, but having had the misfortune of not going through the examination shall have to go over my course over up again. Now to the question at issue.
The reason for doubting the correctness of the traditional date of Haribhadra you ascribe to supposing an internal blank of 300 years and granting the trustworthiness of a tradition carried so far you think yourself justified in questioning it. I am sorry to note that you have as yet not marked my position exactly. The tradition, as it is, if unsupported is no doubt open to question as all traditions are, but when it is based on and supported by positive real quotations from authors whose dates are almost unimpeachable, I fail to see why a tradition should be overlooked. It is now unnecessary to augment to the number of quotations in my last but one letter though it is possible to do so; but for practical purposes they are sufficient.
Your next argument about the difficulty of accounting for the literary activity of Haribhadra is open to criticism. To a monk Siddhartas are all in all and though Davarthigani codified and finally arranged them, one fails to see how his immediate follower may not be highly active. On the other hand codification of Siddhantas makes his activity highly probable because thereafter he had not to depend upon the frail resources of memory, but on the beautifully arranged books. Also good many commentaries at the hand of other writers in Prakrit in the form of Niryukti &c. had already been com. posed before the final codification which latter fact also goes to show that Devardhigani did not newly arrange all the