Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 27

LIFE OF HEMACANDRA ordained, but e consent of his parents must be obtained. When Cangadeva's wish was put before his parents, they first of all opposed, but finally gave their consent to it."
Lastly, the author of the Kumārapālacarita gives both the first and the second stories with some embellishments and weaves them together in his own way, without troubling himself about the contradictions. Thus he declares thrice that Căngadeva was born in the year 1145 of the Vikrama-era, but he twice gives as the date of his ordination the year 1150, i. e. the fifth year of his life, in agreement with the Prabhāvakacaritra, and once gives the date Vikrama Samyat 1154, i. e. the ninth year of his life, in accordance with Merutunga. According to his assumption, Căngadeva received the name Somadeva after his ordination. He adds that the form Somacandra is used by some". 18
Evidently the story of the Kumārapālacarita deserves no consideration. Also the account of Rājasekhara is not trustworthy, for he betrays his desire to prove that Hemacandra entered the holy order in strictest accordance with the doctrine of the sacred scriptures of the Jainas. According to these doctrines, only he is worthy to become a monk who, enlightened through the sermon and through his own meditation, is convinced of the futility of the world and feels the intense longing for eternal salvation, the Mukti. In reality, the facts work somewhat differently. If the order of the Yatis were allowed to recruit members only from the volunteers who desired to renounce the world, then it would be in a bad position and the Jaina-congregation would be short of preachers. The provision 3f the necessary recruits is generally secured by the rich members of the congregation buying up boys, still in their tenderest age, from their parents and entrusting them to the Yatis for instruction. Illegitimate children of Brahmin widows are given special preference as they can be cheaply bought and may be supposed to have spiritual aptitude, for often the fathers of such children belong to the most cultured castes of India. In this matter not seldom does it happen that children of poor Brahmins or Vāņiās are bought especially in times of high cost of living. In some isolated cases the Yatis themselves are active and make sure of successors by adopting forsaken orphans or by begging from their co-religionists children to whom they take fancy. These conditions of the present day clearly show that Rājasekhara's account is an invention, especially because the contradictory statements of the Prabhāvakacaritra and of Merutunga agree with the first-named. It is for the same reason that one must declare as perfectly trustworthy the statement that Devacandra obtained Cāngadeva by begging him from his mother. It is in every way probable that a monk who was attracted by an intelligent boy, 'endowed with lucky marks', sought to get him as a pupil and gained his purpose by cleverly exploiting the piety and the weakness of the mother. The story of the dream and of its interpretation before the birth of the boy as found in the Prabhāvakacaritra is, of course, to be rejected as an outcome of the belief, so often repeated by the Jainas, that the birth of great men is predicted to mothers by dreams.
In the same way, little value can be attached to the assertion in both the oldest sources, that Căngadeva sat on the cushion of the monk, On the other hand, it is probably correct that Cāciga opposed and attempted to bring his son back, as related by Merutunga. If he was, &s Merutunga says, "of heretical mind”, that is, though belonging to the Jaina congregation, he still adhered to the old views, then one can easily understand his opposition against his son's entering the Yati's order. He was probably possessed by
re as per from his Dacendowe