Life of Hemchandracharya

Author(s): Manilal Patel
Publisher: Singhi Jain Shastra Shiksha Pith Mumbai

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CHAPTER 1.-SOURCES have been 'placed side by side; in other cases, attempts have been made tù bring them in accord by alterations. These repetitions have, of course, no great worth, except when Jinanandana's method of broader representation is instrumental to a better understanding of the notes of his predecessors which were sometimes too brief. His extracts from some older and hardly accessible works are, on the other hand, of greater value,-particularly those from the Moharājaparājaya, a drama which Yaśahpāla, a councillor or a minister of the Emperor' Ajayadeve, i. e. of the king Ajayapāla of Gujarat, wrote in honour of Kumāra pāla's conversion to Jainism. As Ajayapāla reigned immediately after Kumārapāla and sat on the throne only for three years, the informations given in the drama deserve serious attention as being those of a contemporary source.
Like all the Caritras and Prabandhas, even the oldest of the works enumerated are not purely historical sources; nor are they comparable to the European Chronicles of the Middle Ages or to those of the Arabs. On the whole they are sectarian writings and when using them, one must take into account not only the tendencies of the sect from which they emanate, but also other minor details and some peculiarities of the Indian character. According to the definition which Rājasekhara gives in his introduction to the Prabandhakoşa,' the Caritras of the Jainas are the biographies of the Tīrthařkaras or Prophets-the ancient, whole-or half-mythical Emperors of India who are occasionally called Cakravartin-and of the Seers, i. e. the great, ancient chiefs of the sects down to Arya-Rakşita who must have died in the year 557 after Vira or 30 A. D. According to him, the stories of men of later times, monks as well as laymen, are designated as Prabandha'. The motives with which the Caritras and the Prabandhas were written, are to edify the congregations, to convince them of the magnificence and the might of the Jaina faith and to supply the monks with the material for their sermons, or, when the subject is purely of worldly interest, to provide the public with pleasant entertainment. Metrical works of this class were written always according to the rules of the Brahmanical poetics and were meant to exhibit the artistic skill and scholarship of the authors. As the authors start out with this point of view before them, they naturally make their works collections of interesting anecdotes serving their purpose rather than actual biographies or exact accounts of events in the past. They move almost always by leaps and bounds and often leave very important points entirely in darkness. At the same time, their information often betrays strong, intentional colouring in the interest of their own faith; whereas in other places poetic exaggerations or devices which are to make the story piquant, may easily be detected. Other circumstances which render it more difficult for us to ascertain the historical valuation of the Caritras and the Prabandhas are the uncertainty of their original sources which for the major part consist of the oral tradition of the schools of the monks or of the bards and of the fearful belief in miracles and superstitions which were perhaps more deep-rooted in the Indians than in the European peoples of the Middle Ages.
The authors of the Prabandhas admit most of the points referred to above, thereby themselves admitting their main weaknesses. Thus, Rājasekhara says in the Introduction to the Prabandhakosa, whilst at the same time giving interesting advice to the preachers of his faith;
"Here the pupil must humbly study everything, as prescribed, under a teacher