Life of Hemchandracharya

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

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LIFE OF HEMASANDRA
by his panegyrics on Kumārapāla's war-activities of which the verses partly very cleverly composed in the commentary on the Des'ināmamālā give examples. There was probably no lack of opportunity for religious discussions at the Court. According to all accounts, Kumārapāla was about fifty years old when he ascended the throne and when the completion of his war-expeditions allowed him to take rest, he had attained his sixty-third year. That at such an age he turned to religious questions can well be understood, this being usual especially in the case of Indians. Moreover, be it noted that for years he wandered here and there, as the Prabandhas would have us believe, as a Sivaite ascetic and that he, as Hemacandra says in the Yogas'āstra (see Note 80), had "seen" various manuals of the Yoga and took great interest in the Yogic practices of the ascetics, which would first of all bring supernatural powers and finally would lead to deliverance. Hemacandra also 'was very expert in these doctrines, as his last-named work shows, and he appears to have performed the prescribed spiritual exercises himself for he bases his description of the practices on personal experience (Note 80). So far, the circumstances were well favourable to persuade even a king to abandon Saivism to which his race had paid homage from time immemorial and to go over to the heterodox Jaina sect which was very influencial and had been honoured in Gujarat for many years." As his works show, Hemacandra was never in want of skill. He probably began with caution and, as the Prabandhas state, he emphasised wherever possible the harmony between the doctrines of Jainism and those of the orthodox systems. The Kumārapālacarita, pp. 124 ff., particularly gives long sermons in extenso, in which Hemacandra attempts to prove the identity of Jina and Siva as well as Vişņu, and refers to the canonical works of the Brahmins for the doctrine of preserving the life of animals. However little one may rely on the wording of these and similar passages, they without doubt clearly show the way in which Hemacandra approached the works. For, in the commentary on his Yogas'āstra he cites among other things, passages from the Brahmanical works, with the introductory words: "So say even the believers of false doctrines," in confirmation of the Jaina doctrines, and also in the text of this work (III, 21,26), Manu's words against meat-eating, with mention of his name, are given. There is, however, no trace in his works of an identification of the Brahmanical gods with the Jinas. In spite of this, it is quite possible that he made use of them in his sermons; they were usual even in the 12th century. In the Mangala to the Nāṁdol deed of presentation of the princes Albana and Kelhaņa of V. S. 1218, we read :
"To liberation may also the gods Brahman, Sridhara and Sankara lead [us,] who, always renouncing passions, are known in the world as Jinas!"
However, Hemacandra's task had been troublesome and success did not crown it so rapidly as too strict an interpretation of the above-mentioned passage from the Mahāvīracarita would have us believe. It is particularly likely that, as the Prabandhas relate, Hemacandra was continually disturbed in his work by hostile influences and that all the Brahmins were bent upon to counteract his influence over the king and, above all, to hinder the formal conversion of the latter. Merutunga's above-mentioned anecdotes, according to which malicious and envious people set traps for Hemacandra, describe the general situation quite rightly, even if one might not agree in details. In the same way.