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PRAMANA-NAYA-TATTVALOKALAMKARA 251
if 1143 were the year of his birth, he would be only nine years old at the time of his initiation which is apparently improbable.
Deva Suri was born in the town of Maddahrita in Guzerat. His father was a trader named Viranaga, of the clan of Pragvata• His mother's name was Jina-devi. The parents gave their child the name Purna-chandra, meaning Full Moon.
From his very childhood, Purnachandra was of a contemplative and retired disposition. So, as pointed out before, in A. D. 1096, he left home and got himself initiated in the Holy Order. His Master on this occasion was the Suri Munichandra, as ugual, gave him a new name, Rama-chandra.
As a student of philosophy and logic Rama-chandra soon became well known, so much so that in A. D. 1118, he was hailed as Suri or the Master with the surname Deva-Suri.
Deva-Suri was a contemporary of the celebrated Hema. chandra and was much respected by him. As a debater, Devasuri seemed to have no rival. It is said that in the town of Dhavalaka, he defeated a Brahmana thinker of Vedantic bias and another thinker in the town of Satyapura ; in the town of Nagapura, Gunachandra, a Jaina disputant of the Digambara school had to yield in a debate with him ; in Chitra-kuta, Sivabhuti of the Bhagavata school was defeated by him; Deva Suri humbled Gangadhara in Gopa-giri, Dharani-dhara in Dhara and Padmakara in Pushkarini ; the redoubtable Krishna of the Brahminic school also was defeated by him in Bhrigu-kshetra.
The greatest victory, however, of Deva-Suri as a debater was that achieved by him over Kumuda-chandra, a philosopher of the Digambara school. Kumuda-chandra is said to have won no less than eighty-four victories in debate and was considered as the foremost disputant of the time. Deva-Suri challenged Kumuda-chandra in a debate with him and it was held in the royal court of Anahilapura before the king Siddha-raja Jaya-sinha and his courtiers. In this debate, Kumuda-chandra was signally defeated and Deva-Suri successfully established the Svetambara contention that even females can have the Final Emancipation. It is said that from that time, the Svetambara order began to be held in high esteem in Anahilapura court. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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