Life of Hemchandracharya

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

Page 79

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शाब्दं शास्त्रं यदीयान्वयिकनकगिरिस्थान कल्पद्रुमश्च श्रीमान्मथुन सूरिर्विशदयति गिरं नः पदार्थ प्रदाता ॥
"May joy be caused to you by Siri Sri Devananda, through whom, for the sake of the ignorant, a new grammar, called Siddha-Sarasvata, was written-taken from the manual of Hemacandra -and by the successor of his pupil Kanakaprabha, namely Sri Pradyumnasuri, whom we may compare to a tree of paradise; he, the purifier of word-forms and of the meaning, purifies our speech".
From this verse, of the second half of which I have merely given the general sense, without paying attention to the play of words, we see that Devananda wrote a manual of grammar entitled Siddha-Sarasvata, which was an extract from Hemacandra's works. As Hemacandra calls his grammar Siddha-Hemacandra, and as this title means "the manual written by Hemacandra in honour of King Jayasimha-Siddharaja", it seems obvious that we may interpret the name of Devananda's work in a similar way, and explain it by "the Sarasvata (i. e. the work completed by the grace of the goddess Sarasvati) written in honour of King Siddharaja". If this explanation be correct, for we must confess that another explanation is by all means possible,-then Devananda would have been a contemporary of Hemacandra's and would have written under Jayasimha-Siddharaja (who died Vikrama-Samvat 1199, Kärttika sudi 3 or 1142/2 A. D.). In that case the literary activity of Pradyumna Suri, the pupil of his pupil, would fall within the first and second half of the 13th Century, approximately. However, we are saved from the necessity of building upon so uncertain a foundation, by some very interesting informations from the Prasastis of the Cambay-manuscript of Balacandra's Vivekamañjarth in Dr. Peterson's Third Report, App. 1, pp. 101-100, which gives a quito certain date for the activity of the above-named Pradyumnasuri. The first Prasasti (l. c. pp. 101-103), a song in praise of the author of the Vivekamanjart and of the author of the Commentary, relates the following: The post Asads, born of the Bhillamalavams'a (i. e. a S'rīmālā Vania) and a son of Katuka-raja, who for his services in expounding Kalidasa's Meghadata, received the title Kavisabhiyagara, "the ornament of the assembly of poets", from the court scholars (rajasabhyaḥ), had two sons, Rajada-Balasarasvati and Jaitrasimha by his wife Jaitalladevi. When the first one died, he mourned deeply. "Awakened" by a Sūri named Abhayadeva, he wrote the Viesbamasjert in V. S. 1268 (Peterson, First Report, App. I p. 56) or 1211-12 A. D. (verse 12). His second son Jaitrasimha later induced the Ganin Balacandra to write a commentary on his father's work (verse 13). The latter called in the assistance of three men, namely, Vijayasonasuri from Nagendragaceha, Padmasüri from Behadguccha (verse 14) and Pradyumnasiri, who was the pupil of Kanakaprabhasuri, "the moon which adorned the heaven of Devinanda's school". We find here the same order: Devananda, Kanakaprabha and Pradyumna, as in the Prabhavakacaritra, and it is therefore certain that the corrector of the last-named was Balacandra's assistant. The last verse of the 2nd Prasasti, a song in praise of the noble donor of the Cambay MS. (l. c. p. 109, verse 38) teaches us that the MS. was completed on the 8th day of the dark half of the month Karttika, in the year 1822 (of the Vikrama-era) on a Monday, or, according to Dr. Schram's calculation, on the 2nd November 1265, which actually was a Monday. Immediately afterwards there is the announcement that this Prasasti was corrected by the venerable Sri Pradyumnasiri (prasastiḥ samāptā||subhamastulpajyas'ri-Pradyumnasiribhiḥ prasasti saka odhiteti). This has gained for us a definite date for Pradyumna's activity. It may be added, moreover, that he also helped with the production of a third work of which we may assert with great probability that it belongs to the middle of the 13th century at the latest. Deväsuri says in the Introduction to his Santinathacarita (Peterson, First Report, 1882-83, p. 60, App. pp. 4-6) that his poem is a revision of a Prakrit work of the same name by Devacandrasuri (verse 13). Then he praises the pupil of the latter, Hemacandra, who converted a king [Kumarapala] (Versas 14-15). Then (verse 16) he pays his homage to Devananda, author of the Siddha-Sarasvata Grammar, and relates (verse 17) that Pradyumna, prince amongst the pupils of Kanakaprabha, Devananda's pupil, corrected his work. Verse 17 is so similar to the above-quoted verse of the Prabhavakacaritra XVII, 329, that it is safe to ascribe it to the same author, Pradyumnasuri. The age of the Santinathacarita is approximately determined by the fact that the Cambay MS, of the