Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 51

CHAPTER VI
Hemacandra's own Account of Kumarapala's Conversion
If we compare these various stories about Kumarapala's conversion with each other, it cannot be denied that the one given by Merutunga is written with very great dexterity and that his presentation is at first sight very attractive. It appears so natural that because of an insult from a Brahmin, Hemacandra should have thought of giving up his independence and placing himself under the protection of the king. The clever way in which he moves Kumarapala for a certain time to follow some of the most important tenets of Jainism while at the same time he takes care not to put anything in the way of his patron's reverence to Siva,-in fact he greatly encourages him in that,-betrays clearly the difficult situation in which he found himself in the court. This adaptation and apparent relaxation, the fooling of the king by a hocus-pocus and the subsequent clever exploitation of the favourable moment-all this seems quite credible and fits in very well with the character and the method of the Jaina-missionaries. On closer examination, however, many improbabilities or impossibilities are found in the account, It is easy to recognise, for example, that Merutunga indulges in an awful anachronism when he assumes that Udayana was Kumarapala's minister and introduced Hemacandra to the king. According to Merutunga's own account (p. 9), Udayana came to Gujarat shortly after the beginning of Jayasimha's rule i, e. about V. S. 1150. Kumarapala ascended the throne about 50 years later, in V. S. 1199. It is then simply impossible that he could have lived still for any length of time under Kumarapala or that he could ever have served him. Merutunga's assumption, too, that Henacandra advised the rebuilding of the temple in Devapattana, does not at all agree with the statements in an older document. For, in the inscription dated Valabhi-Samvat 850 or V. S. 1225 in the temple of Bhadrakali at Devapattana, which was first of all made known by Colonel J. Tod, it is quite explicitly said in the 11th verse that the Ganda Brhaspati, who had already been in great favour with Jayasimha, persuaded Kumarapala to rebuild the ruined temple of Siva-Somanatha. Such an assumption has, since it dates from the time of Kumarapala's reign, significantly far more probability than Merutunga's much later statement. If this inscription be in the right, then the whole further narrative of the Prabandhacintamani becomes unbelievable. If ever these points raise suspicion against the faithfulness of the tradition contained in Merutunga's works, then the same