Life of Hemchandracharya

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

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LIFE OF HEMACANDRA because Kumārapāla had deprived it of its prize on his flight from Jayasimha; (2) the Karambavibāra which was built in Anhilvād in honour of an unknown woman who had fed Kumārapāla with a rice dish on his flight; (3) the Dikşāvihāra, the restoration of an old temple in Sāligavasahikā at Cambay, where Hemacandra was consecrated to be a monk and, (4) the Jholikāvihāra, the Cradle-temple, which Kumārapāla ordered to be built in Dhandhūka at the place of Hemacandra's birth.87 Even if we do not accept all particulars in these statements as true, yet they prove that Kumārapāla’s edifices were not confined to only Anhilvād and Devapattana. The modern tradition has also preserved reminiscences of the same. On the Satruñjaya and the Girnār there are still exhibited Kumāravihāras which, however, have been much restored and contain none of the old inscriptions. In Cambay and Dhandhūka they believe they know at least the sites where Kumārapāla's edifices once stood.
Despite these extensive activities in the service of the Jaina-doctrine and to the advantage of the Jainas, Kumārapāla did not completely forget the old cult of his family. In the Dvyās'raya, Hemacandra himself states about the restoration of the temple of Sivakedāranātha and of the Siva-Somanātha following the proclamation of the law of Protection, and also about the building of a Kumāreśvara in Anhilvād, which took place at a still later time, after the construction of the Kumāravihāras in Anbilvād and in Devapattana. The reasons behind the erection of the Kumāreśvara are very peculiar.. Mabādeva, says Hemacandra, appeared himself to Kumārapāla in a dream, announced to him that he was satisfied with his services and expressed his desire to reside in Aņhilvād. From these facts one can conclude that Kumārapāla, despite all his devotion to Hemacandra and despite his adoption of the Jaina faith, never totally denied help to the Sivaites. He might have forced them to give up their bloody sacrifices but he permitted the temple-priests and the ascetics to draw their allowances from the royal treasury. There must have been times when he again drew nearer to the Sivaite faith and worshipped Siva as well as Jina. Such wavering and such mixing of faiths is not unusual in India and such things have happened in old times to other kings also, who had attached themselves to heterodox sects, as, for example, Harşavardhana, the well-known king of Thanesar and Kanoj. This latter king had paid his respects, as Hiuen Tsiang states to have observed with his very eyes, to the Buddhists, to the Brāhmins and to the Jainas. The causes of these phenomena are sufficiently clear. At the court there were always, besides the heterodox parties, the orthodox ones whose influence over the princes remained very powerful. Certainly this must have been the case with Anhilvād, for according to the Prabandhas, the Jaina Vāgbbața was in no way the only minister of Kumārapāla. Along with him there also was a Mantrin, Kapardin, who is not said to have been a Jaina. In the same way, there appears to have been a Saiva teacher, Devabodhi by name, who is supposed to have been a spiritual adviser to Kumārapāla (see pp. 39, 51 ) even after his conversion. In the colophon of a manuscript of V. S. 1218 it is mentioned that Mahāmātya Yaśodhavala was the first minister, probably the same-named ParmăraPrince of Candrāvatī, appointed by Kumārapāla himself. The influence of the orthodox party was naturally strengthened by the old habits of the king and his earlier association with Sivaite ascetics. Added to this, finally, is the tendeney of Indian character, that of reconciling sharp contradictions in the religious systems by conceiving and explaining