Life of Hemchandracharya

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

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LIFE OF HEMACANDRA 51. On account of his bravery, his fulfilment of the law, his generosity, his mercy, his might and other manly virtues, he will stand without a rival,
52. He will conquer the region of Kubera as far as the kingdom of the Turuskas, that of Indra as far as the river of gods, that of Yama as far as the Vindhya, and the west as far as the ocean.
53. Once this prince will see the teacher Hemacandra, who has arisen from the race of Municandra in the Vajraśākhi.
54. Delighted at the sight of him, as the peacock is delighted at the appearance of the clouds, this good man will hasten to do honour daily to that monk.
55. This king will go with his minister of the Jaina faith to honour that Sūri whilst the latter is preaching in the temple of the Jina about the sacred law.
56. There he will, though ignorant of the truth, pray to the god, and honour that teacher with a naturally pure heart.
:57. After he has heard with delight the noble sermon about the law from his lips, he will take the minor vows and will then strive after the vow of perfection.
58. After enlightenment has come to him, he will fully learn the life of the faithful, and, resting in the audience-chamber, will ever delight himself with the speeches about the sacred law.ce
This prophecy agrees excellently with the statements of the Dvyās'rayakūvya and completes the same. The somewhat poetically coloured description of the frontiers of the Gujarat Empire gives us clearly to understand that it extended in the north-east by overthrowing the Sapādalakṣa or in the eastern Rājputānā by defeating SākambhariSāmbhar and in the south-east by conquering Mālvā. Kumārapāla's acquaintance with Hemacandra began, according to the verse 53, in the time when the empire had achieved its greatest expansion and when the war-expeditions and conquests were over. His conversion was the result of a sermon preached by Hemacandra when he had gone to the Jaina temple in the company of an unnamed minister in order to pay his homage to the monk who had made a deep impression on him.
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These statements of Hemacandra himself make it first of all necessary to reject as fanciful all the above-described anecdotes as to his earlier relations with Kumārapāla during his flight. The anecdotes were composed probably with a view to motivating the later relationship. They show, moreover, that the further accounts of the Prabandhas as to the renewal of the acquaintance and the conversion contain in them little historical element. The above-given narrative of the Prabhāvakacaritra, according to which Kumārapāla was moved by his minister Vāgbhata to invoke Ajitasvāmin to help him against Arņorāja and was converted to Jainism by reason of the fulfilment of his prayer, cannot be true, for the war with Mālvā, which is not mentioned in the Prabhāvakacaritra, took place even before the conversion; so that it was not awe at Hemacandra's miraculous powers but appreciation of his life and teachings that induced the king to listen to