Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 54

CHAPTER VI.-HEMACANDRA'S ACCOUNT. QF KUMARAPALA'S CONVERSION 35
Hemacandra's sermong. Merutunga's detailed account contradicts Hemacandra's own account still more, as may easily be seen. There are only two points in which the Prabandhas agree to some extent with Hemacandra, thereby preserving real tradition. In the first place, they are no doubt correct when they state that Kumārapāla's Jaina minister introduced Hemacandra to the court and was interested in creating favourable ground for his faith. For, the mention of the "Jaina” minister, who according to the Mahāviracarita accompanied the king to the temple, is not made without any reason. We may take it for granted that it was this Jaina companion who occasioned Hemacandra's acquaintance with the king and who induced the latter to visit the temple. Most probably the minister was Vägbhața, son of Udayana, whom the Prabhāvakacaritra mentions in the above-mentioned narrative of conversion. The poem in praise of the Kumāravihāra written by Hemacandra's pupil Vardhamāna testifies that Vägbhata really belonged to the group of the ministers of Kumārapāla. Several stories of the Prabandhas maintain that Hemacandra consecrated either in V. S. 1211 or 1213 the temple which Vāgbhata had built in Satruñjaya in memory of his father who had fallen in the battlo against Navaghaņa, the Cūļāsamā king of Vāmanasthali. One Prabandha says, further, that Hemacandra did the same service in V. S. 1220 to Amrabhata, second son of Udayana, for his temple of Suvrata in Broach, whereas the other Prabandhas (see under) relate a legend about Hemacandra's healing of Amrabhata." If to this be added Merutunga's statement, even though an anachronism, that Hemacandra was introduced to Kumārapāla by the father of both the brothers (p. 29), then it does not seem too bold to regard the family of Udayana as the prime cause of Hemacandra's influence at the court of Anhilvād and to regard him as the family's particular protègè. A second historical element in the stories of the Prabandhas is the statement that Kumārapāla's conversion took place, not in the beginning but about the middle of his reign. Here also they agree, as has been shown, with Hemacandra's statements.
The exact date of this event appears to have been preserved in the drama, already referred to above, the Moharājaparājaya by the councillor Yaśaḥpāla. The conversion of the king is allegorically mentioned as his inarriage with the princess Krpāsundari i e. the beautiful Mercy, the daughter of Dharmaraja and the Viratidevi, Hemacandra is mentioned as the Priest who ordained the marriage tie before Arhat. According to the quotation of Jinamaņdana from the Moharăjaparājaya, this marriage took place in V.S. 1216, Märga sudi 2. If, as may be well supposed, this date really occurred in the drama, then it must be taken as authentic, for the Moharājaparājaya was written, as is shown in the Note 6, a few years after the death of Kumārapāla, between V. S. 1229 and 1232.68 We may also add to this that Kumārapāla received the title Paramas'rāvaka i.e. the most eager hearer (of the Jaina-doctrine)', in the colophon of an old MS. which was written five years later, in V. S. 1221; while his conversion is not mentioned in a Jaina-inscription of V. S. 1213.69
If we accept now V. S. 1216 as the date of Kumārapāla's conversion, then we may place his first meeting with Hemacandra one or two years earlier. Even if the Mahāvīracarita assumes that the king, after coming to know the distinguished Teacher, will hasten to revere bim daily", it is of no avail to weigh these words as of gold. It