Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 35

16
LIFE OF HEMACANDRA
three hundred 'copyists to Aphilväd, who had to make copies during three years. Then he presented one copy to each of the heads of all the sects in his kingdom and dispatched other copies all over India, nay, even beyond the borders of India, into Persia, Ceylon and Nepal. Twenty copies were also sent to Kasmir which the goddess Sarasvati accepted for the library of her Temple. In order to further still more the study of this work, Kayastha Kakala, a well-known grammarian, was invited to teach it in Aphilväd. Every month a public examination of his pupils was held on the Jñanapaficami. Whoever did his task well, received from the king a shawl, a golden ornament, a sedan-chair or a
sunshade.
82
Merutunga's account which Jinamandana copies almost verbatim is much shorter and runs quite differently. When the king praised Hemacandra's stanza composed in honour of his triumphal entrance, it is said in the Prabandhacintamani, some jealous Brahmins remarked: "The monk has drawn his wisdom purely from our books?" The king thereupon asked Hemacandra if it was so. The latter replied: "We study the Jainagrammar which Mahavira in his childhood explained to Indra". The envious Brahmins rejoined that it was a story of hoary antiquity; and that Hemacandra might name a more modern-grammarian of his faith. Then the monk offered himself to write a new grammar in a few days if only His Highness Siddharaja helped him. The king consented and dismissed the scholars. After the celebrations of the triumphal entrance were over, the king was reminded of the story of the grammar and he ordered to collect, as promised, MSS. of all the existing grammars from many lands and also summoned scholars who were conversant with various systems. Hemacandra then wrote in one year the Siddhahemacandra in five parts which contained 125,000 couplets, each of 32 syllables. When the book was ready, it was brought to the palace in right royal honour on the state-elephant and was deposited there in the treasury. From that time onwards, all other grammars were ignored and the Siddhahemacandra alone was studied everywhere. This disappointed the rivals of Hemacandra and one of them secretly sneaked to the king. that the grammar did not contain, as it should have contained, a poem of praise in honour of the Caulukya dynasty. Hemacandra got scent of that scandal and learned that the king was angry with him for that oversight. Thereupon he composed at once thirty-two stanzas in honour of the Caulukyas and recited them the next morning when his grammar was being read in the palace. The king was thereby reconciled and ordered that the knowledge of the Grammar be further spread.
It can be seen at the first glance that neither of the two stories possesses a claim to credibility in all its details. As Hemacandra's grammar is, however, preserved in its completeness and as recently many later works bearing on the same have become known, it is possible to examine critically the statements of tradition and to note that a great part of them, especially of those in the Prabhavakacaritra, is quite correct. To this category belong, first of all, the date of the last-named work as to the extent, the arrangement and character of the Grammar, as well as the cause that led to its compilation. The Siddhahemacandra contains, it is true, eight Adhydyas and thirty-two Pädas and at the end of the commentary on each Pada comes one stanza in honour of one of the first seven Caulukya kings while at the end of the whole there are four stanzas." The Siddha