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A SYNOPTIC VIEW OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF HEMACHANDRA
Thanks to the efforts of scholars like Dr. G. Buhler, Prof. R. C. Parikh and others, a connected account of Hemachandracārya's early life is not a matter of mystery or conjecture. Accordingly, Hemachandra was born in 1088 or 1089 A. D. in Dhandhuka near Ahmedabad in a Modha family. He was called Cangadeva in his childhood. He was initiated in Jainism by the famous Jain monk Devachandrasuri, under whom he mastered many branches of Indian Learning or "crossed the ocean of learning." His fascination for the "land of learning" (Kashmir) indicates the deep infiiuence of Kashmirian Scholars' work on his Sastric predilections and is suggestive of the fact that "some of Hemachandra's teachers might have been Kashmirian Panditas." This explains his adherence to the doctrines of poetics developed in Kashmir by such authorities as Anandavardhana, Abhinavagupta and Mammata. For, Kashmir, from early times and particularly in this period, has been the land that furnished the material groundwork and gave the signal io start for investigations by writers all over the country. 290 It stands to reason, therefore, that the life of Hemachandra, who grew to be a man of extensive and extraordinary learning, should have "something to do with Kashmir in matters of learning."
Jain Education International
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