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110
GANAYA-MANAYA-INDRAJĀLI-PRABANDHA
The very first incident of this prabandha is one of the very significant historical events of the reign of Jay a simha Siddharāja viz. the great dialectical dispute between the Svetambara and the Digambara sects of the Jainas. The Svetambara leader was the great pontiff Deva sūri ot Gujarat a, the preceptor of Kalikālusarvajíia Hema c andra sūri, while the leader of the Digambaras was Ku muda candra, the great pontiff from Karnataka. The contest took place in the court of Jaya. simha, the king himself being in the chair. It is stated to have occurred on the full-moon day of the month of Vaisakha in the year 1181 V. S. = 1125 A.D.
It continued for sixteen days, one of the main problems of contest being whether women were eligible for salvation. Deva sūri contended that they were, possessing as they did the 'sattva'. Along with the examples of ancient paragons of chastity he advanced the contemporary illustration of May a naIlāde vi, the king's mother. This contest resulted in the total defeat of the Digambaras as a consequence whereof the Svetāmbaras grew very powerful, and it was probably due to this victory that Devasûri began to be called Vadi Deva sûri.
This monumental incident was immortalised by Yasasca n dra, a contemporary poet, who composed a drama called Mudrtakumudacandruprakaranit, its main theme being this contest. Thereafter it was described in such other works as the Prabhāvakacarita (1277 A.D.) and the Prabanılhacitamani ( 1305 8.D.). In our prabandha the whole incident is not narrated but it is mentioned only as a back-ground to the main story.
Other personages mentioned in this connection are Manik ya, Malay a c a li dra and Pra d y u mna sûri. Màņik ya, a disciple of Deva sūri, is also mentioned in Mudritakumudacandra-prakarana as one of the participants of the contest. He is not known from other sources as a prominent personage. He cannot be identified with Måņik y a candra súri of the Rajagaccha, the author of the first commentary on Ma mm a ţ a's Kavyaprakāśa known as Sanketa (V. S. 1216) and a contemporary of Vastupala. The short conversation between Kumudacandra and Manik ya candra is given in a slightly different manner
4 Vide Prabhāvakacarita of Prabhä сandra (1277 A.D.), pp. 278-296. . Vide PC, pp. 67-68; Sāņdesară B. J.: Itihāsa-ni kedi ( in Gujarāti), p. 52.
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