Life of Hemchandracharya

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

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LIFE OF HEMACANDRA
who has crossed the ocean of the holy scripture and eagerly fulfils his religious duties. Then for the salvation of the pious ones, he must deliver that sermon which stills tho agony of sin; and the prescription for the same is this: the holy scripture must be read without committing any mistake, without contracting words, without omitting syllables. The explanation of the same should be given in a noble, sweet speech. Duly protecting one's body and looking round upon those who have gathered, one must speak so long as the matter is understood. The speaker can generally attain his aim with the Caritras and the Prabandhas."
Still greater details are given by Merutunga in the Introduction to the Prabandhacintamani, verses 5-7, as to the purpose of his work and the character of his sources":
5. The famous Gapin Gunacandra has produced the first copy of the new work, the Prabandhacintamani, which is so lovely as the Mahabharata'.
6. The old tales do not delight the hearts of the shrewd so much, for they have. heard the same very often; I am therefore compiling the book Prabandhacintamani with (the use of) biographies (of my time) of noble men who are nearer to us.'
7. Even if the tales which the wise tell according to their understanding necessarily become different in character, clever people should, however, not criticize this work maliciously, as it rests on a good tradition'.
Thus, Merutunga confesses that his chief purpose was to entertain his public and that there were several contradictory accounts in existence as to the persons and events described by him. He is quite conscious of the uncertainty of the foundation on which his building rests. His grounds of consolation are of very doubtful worth.
These confessions and the fact that besides obvious absurdities, a large number of anachronisms, omissions and other errors occur in all the parts of the Prabandhas, which can be controlled by the accounts of authentic sources, make it essential for one to take the greatest precaution when using them. They should not, however, lead one to a complete rejection of the accounts contained therein; for the Prabandhas do contain much that is well corroborated by the inscriptions and other reliable sources. Particularly one must admit that the persons appearing in the older as well as later (Prabandhas) are all historical. However often a person is placed too early or too late, or the most contrary things are said about him, yet there is not a single instance in which one can with certainty assume that a particular man mentioned by him be a creation of the author's imagination. On the contrary, almost every new inscription, every collection of old manuscripts, and each newly discovered historical work supplies evidence for the actual existence of one or other of the personalities mentioned by them. So also those dates which they give as exact deserve always our most earnest consideration. Whenever these occur in other works of this class, which are usually independent of one another, we may without any hesitation accept them as historically correct, Naturally the same is also the case with other information. It will be seen from what follows that all the statements about Hemacandra in the Prabhavakacaritra as also in the Prabandhacintamani which are not from the outset doubtful because of their character, are completely correct. On