Life of Hemchandracharya

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

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LIFE OF HEMĄCANDRA a rat dragged away the wick of a lamp and consequently a conflagration broke out. Devabodhi extinguished it when he rubbed his hands." Kumārapāla sent, thereupon, messengers to Devapattana and found that Hemacandra's statement had been correct.100
The Prabhāvakacaritra also supplies us with an instance of Hemacandra's magic powers. It relates, that Amrabhata came into conflict with Saindhavi Devi and Yoginīs as he had the Temple of Suvrata in Broach restored. He was consequently punished with illness by them. His mother invoked the help of Hemacandra who went to Broach with his pupil Yaśascandra, made the Devi surrender by magic powers, and healed Amrabhata. Slightly different recensions of this anecdote are found in Merutunga and in Jinamaņdana 101
Both these latter as well as Rājasekhara also relate that Hemacandra cured Kumārapāla of leprosy. According to Merutunga, this disease attacked the king as a result of a cựrse which the pious mother of the king Lakṣa of Kach had given to the successors of Mūlarāja, the conqueror of her son. By the power of his Yoga, Hemacandra cured the king. According to Rājasekhara, Kunteśvari Devī, the family goddess of the Caulukyas, took revenge for the prohibition of her sacrifices (p. 52) by revealing herself to Kumārapāla and striking him on the head with the trident. As a result, he became leprous. He called his minister Udayana to him and told him his tale of woe. On Udayana's advice, Hemacandra was requested to help, who cured the disease with the water consecrated with magical incantations. Jinamaņdana gives enlarged recensions of both the stories and makes the miracle doubly worked. 102
the sixth one of Garjanainst Gujarat
Still more phantastic are the two stories which are related by Jinamaņdana alone. The first of them is : Kumārapāla had taken a pledge not to quit his capital during the rainy season, in order to fulfil the sixth vow of the Jainas. Meanwhile, he received information from his spies that the Saka Prince of Garjana, that is, the Muhammedan Sultan of Gazni, had made preparations to wage a war against Gujarat precisely during that rainy season. Kumāra pāla was greatly perplexed. If he wanted to keep his vow, he could not defend his land. If, on the other hand, he would fulfil his royal obligations, he must become untrue to the Jaina faith. In this dilemma he approached Hemacandra who reassured him at once and promised help. Hemacandra then sat down in the posture of 'lotus-seat' (padmāsana) and gave himself up into deep meditation. After a while, there came a palanquin flying through the air, in which lay a sleeping man. This sleeper was the Prince of Garjana whom Hemacandra had dragged in there by the power of his Yoga-magic. He was released only after he had promised to preserve peace with Gujarat and to command in his kingdom the protection of all living beings during six months. The second story ascribes a still greater power to Hemacandra. Once he had a quarrel with Devabodhi as to whether it was a full-moon day or a new-moon day. He himself had voted for the former which was, however, wrong; he was therefore scoffed at by Devabodhi. Despite this, Hemacandra declared that he had not been wrong but asserted that the evening would prove the correctness of his view. When the sun set in, Kumārapāla with Devabodhi and his barons climbed on the top-room of his palace in order to see if the moon would rise and as a matter of precaution he also sent messengers