Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 67

CHAPTER VIII
Hemacandra's literary works after Kumārapāla's Conversion
Even during the period of his greatest power, when the friendship with Kumārapāla claimed much of him, Hemacandra remained true to his literary aspirations. Besides the Yogas'āstra, already mentioned, and an exhaustive commentary thereon, he wrote, between V. S. 1216 and 1229, a collection of stories of the holy, already mentioned, entitled, Trişastis alākāpuruşacarita-"the Life of the sixty-three best men.” The work gives in ten Parvans the legends of the twenty-four Jinas, the twelve Cakravartins or emperors of India, the nine Vasudevas, the nine Baladevas and the nine Vişņudviş or enemies of the nine incarnations of Vişnu. An appendix, the Paris'istaparvan or Sthavirāvalicarita, deals with the story of Daśapūrvins, the oldest teachers of the Jaina-religion from Jambūsvāmin upto Vajrasvāmin, who still knew the old canonical manuals, called the Purva. The work is written almost wholly in heroic metre and is called by the author a Mahākāvya or great epic. Its extent is very great, so great that it justifies in a certain degree its proud claim of comparison with the Mahābhārata, as hinted by the division into Parrans. According to Jinamaņdana, it contains 36,000 Anuştubh ślokas. S4 Its composition falls later than that of the Yogas'āstra, for it is not quoted in the Commentary on the latter. On the other hand, in the notes on III, 131 the story of the teacher Sthūlabhadra is related in almost identical terms as in the Paris'istaparvan VIII, 2-197 and IX, 55-111a. Only the introductory verses are different and here and there some different readings are found which, however, seldom make any difference in sense. It is therefore evident that the particular passages from the commentary on the Yogas'āstra have been taken over in the Paris'istaparvan. On the other hand, the Trisastis'alākāpuruşacarita was written earlier than the Dvyās'rayakāvya or, at least, earlier than the last five sargas of the latter, if we believe Merutunga's statement that this poem originally glorified only the victories of JayasimhaSiddharāja, and if we accept that the concluding portion was a later addition (p. 19). The Dvyās rayakāvya describes the story of Kumārapāla a little further than does the Mahāviracarita. For, it mentions, as already shown on p. 33, the magnificent temple of Pārsvanātha at Devapattana. The Mahāvīracarita is silent as to this one but it describes in minute details the circumstances which caused the somewhat earlier building of the Kumāravihāra in Aṇhilvād. Further, the Sanskrit Dvyās'raya was followed by