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Rishabhadeva except the Bhaktämara Stotra. i.e. one Stotra of Pärshvanatha is popular (the Uvasaggaharam Stotra) as is one Stotra of Rishabhadeva (the Bhaktämara Stotra). (3) The Bhaktämara Stotra has attracted more people because it vividly describes how one can get rid of all the seven main fears in one's life. There are separate verses for each. The Kalyan Mandir Stotra does not mention fear in this way. Therefore the appeal of the Bhaktämara Stotra, as far as a layperson is concerned, is much more than the Kalyan Mandir Stotra.
(4) The story of Mäntungächärya and how he composed the Bhaktämara Stotra has proved more popular.
These observations are mine and some scholars may not agree with these points. However one thing is certain. The Kalyan Mandir Stotra, though not as popular as the Bhaktamara, is an important and scholarly poem, full of poetical charm.
Many commentators and authors have tried to compare the Kalyan Mandir and the Bhaktämara Stotras. The reasons for the attempt are quite clear:
(1) The Bhaktämara and the Kalyan Mandir are composed in the same meter
(2) The Bhaktämara and the Kalyan Mandir both mention divine attributes of a Tirthankara in a similar style.
(3) The numbers of verses in both the Stotras are almost similar (the Kalyan Mandir has forty-four verses and the Bhaktämara has forty-four as per the Shvetämbara tradition and forty-eight as per the Digambara tradition)
(4) The narration has many similarities. Initially the poets very humbly accept the fact that they are unable to describe the divine attributes of the Tirthankaras. Many other similarities are explored here later.
These are some of the reasons why scholars tend to think that the Kalyan Mandir has been composed to imitate the Bhaktämara Stotra.
Prof. Hermann Jacobi strongly opines that the Kalyan Mandir is the imitation of the Bhaktamara Stotra'. This statement raises many questions. If we are to accept the accounts of Pattävali then the Kalyan Mandir's author, Siddhasena Diwäkar, existed during the First Century BCE whereas the Bhaktämara's author, Mäntungächärya, existed some seven or eight hundred years after Siddhasena. Therefore the Kalyan Mandir could not have been composed in imitation of the Bhaktämara. But then Prof. Jacobi raises another important point in saying that the Kalyan Mandir Stotra is not the work of Siddhasena Diwakar but someone called Kumudchandra. He says:
"Our information about the author of the Kalyan Mandir is very scanty or almost nil. It has been already stated that he composed this Stotra in imitation of the Bhaktämara. He alludes to his name Kumudchandra in the last verse of the Kalyan Mandir, in the same way as Mäntunga has introduced his name in the last strophe of the Bhaktämara. The commentators aver that the author was Siddhasena Diwäkar, and the Kumudchandra was but another name of that famous teacher. This assertion, however, is open to grave doubts. For in the extant works of Siddhasena Diwakar the name Kumudchandra is not found. But in his fifth Dwatrishinka, which is a true stotra, has introduced the name Siddhasena just as Mäntunga and Kumudchandra did allude to their names in the corresponding passages of their stotras. Why should Siddhasena not have retained the name contained in the Kalyan Mandir Stotra if he had been the
Foreword written in Hiralal Kapadia's book Bhaktamara, Kalyan Mandir. Published 1928
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