Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 49

LIFE OF HEMAGANDRA
(1) Thou dost exist, whosoever Thou art, whatsoever Thy place, Thy time and Thy name may be! If Thou art the only one, free from stains and errors, then all reverence be to Thee, O Worthy of worship!
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(2) Reverence to Him in whom the sorrows and the other causes of the seed of rebirth have vanished: be He Brahman, Visņu or Maheśvara!
When Hemacandra had finished his prayers, Kumarapala worshipped, on his part, the god according to the instructions of the priest Byhaspati and distributed rich presents. Then he ordered his retinue to retire and visited, with. Hemacandra, the Holiest of the holy. There he asked his friend to explain before the Liñga truthfully the way to deliverance. Hemacandra meditated for a moment. Then he proposed to appeal to the god who was verily there, that He might manifest Himself and show the way to deliverance. Hemacandra himself undertook to sink into the deepest meditation in order to attain the desired end. He instructed the king to bring immediately incense-offering of aloe-wood. As both of them thus were so busy and the adytum was filled with smoke-clouds, there, appeared all of a sudden a bright light and the beaming form of an ascetic was visible on the water-basin around the Linga. The king touched the apparition from its feet up to its head and having convinced himself that it was of divine origin, requested it for advice. Thereupon it told him that Hemacandra would surely lead him to deliverance. The apparition disappeared. The king then requested Hen-acandra in all humility for instruction. The latter at once made him take a vow that he would never touch during all his lifetime either meat or spirituous drinks. After a short time, Kumarapala returned to Anhilvad. He was won over more and more to the Jaina faith through Hemacandra's instructions in the holy scriptures as well as through his works, the Trigaṣṭis'alākāpuruşacaritra and the Yogadastra and the twenty stavas composed in honour of Vitaraga. Kumarapala also received the title of Paramartata, "the eager worshipper of the Arhata". He then promulgated an edict probibiting the killing of animals for fourteen years in the eighteen provinces subject to him. He had 1440 Jaina temples built and took the twelve vows of Jaina-layman. When the third one, prohibiting stealing, was explained to him, he at onec decided to break the old custom of confiscating the property of those subjects who had died without leaving an heir.
Jinamandana essentially agrees with Merutunga. But he felt the inner contradiction which the story of the Prabandhacintamani as well as that of the Prabhavakacaritra contained. It appeared to him as unbelievable that Hemacandra who had helped Kumarapala on his flight and had prophesied his ascending the throne, should have been afterwards forgotten for so many years and that he could have obtained access to the court only through the intervention of the Jaina minister. He has therefore interwoven a new story at the beginning of his account. The story is to show that Hemacandra went to the court very soon after Kumarapala's coronation, This story, however, betrays quite clearly that the author had the knowledge of the older accounts and that he had changed them deliberately. After enumerating the presents which were given to the councillor Udayana and to the other benefactors of the king, he