Monk and Monarch

Author(s): Vidyavijay
Publisher: Deepchand Banthia

Page 86

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Once, when Suriji was at Khambat, Vimalharsha, who was at Ahamadabad, had some unpleasant discussion with some Jains like Bhadua and others. During that discussion Bhadua used insulting and abusive words for Vimalharsha Vimalharsha represented the matter to Suri. He at once wrote out a letter to the Sadhus of Ahamadabad, asking them to put Bhadua and others out of the Sangha and to stop all relations with them. And it was only after Bhadua and others apologised both to the Suri and the Sangha that they were readmitted to the fold.
This shows that Suri had constant worry about maintaining order and peace in the Sangha and the Sadhus.
Out of the 2,000 Sadhus, living under Hirvijaysuri, some were good preachers, some were poets, some were grammarians, some were logicians, some were ascetics, and some were scholars. Chief among these were the following :
1. VIJAYSENSURI :- He was the chief pupil and successor of Hirvijaysuri. He possessed almost all the virtues of the Suri. Originally he lived at Nadlai in Marwar. He was thirty-five generations removed from Raja Devad. His father's name was Kamasha and mother's Kodimade. His own name was Jesingh. He was born on the 15th day of the bright half of Fagan, V. S. 1604. It was on the 11th day of the bright half of Jyeshtha, V. S. 1613 that, at the age of nine, he, along with his mother, was initiated at the hands of Vijay dansuri in Surat. His father was initiated two years earlier. Soon after his initiation he was put under Hirvijaysuri. Gradually he obtained the title of 'Pandit' in V. S. 1626 and of 'Upadhyaya' and 'Acharya' in 1628. He was declared as the chief pupil in V. S. 1630. His scholarship will be judged from the fact that he has given 700 different interpretations to the first verse of "Yogashastra." It is said that he has established 4,00,000 Jain idols in different places like Kavi, Gandhar, Champaner, Ahamadabad, Khambhat and Patan. He had in his group 8 Upadhyayas, 150 Pandits and many other ordinary Sadhus.
He was a great debator also. He had defeated Brahmins before Akbar in an assembly. He had also defeated in Surat a Digambara monk named Bhushana. He died at Akbarpur28 in