Prasharamrati Prakaranam

Author(s): Umaswati, Umaswami, Haribhadrasuri, Anandsagarsuri, Sagaranandsuri
Publisher: Shrutbhuvan Sansodhan Kendra

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say definitely whether any other commentaries on this work were written, yet it is certain that there was at least on brhad-vrtti in this commentator's time. That the present vrtti is based on that one is clearly stated in prasasti śloka no. 3. A. Praśama-Rati with commentary was formerly published by some other Public institution. The editor of the work, it seems, believes his commentary to be the one written by Śrī Haribhadra Sūri. But it is not the same. It is a vṛtti by some unknown author. I think that it is not the brhad-vrtti, for it is neither longer than this laghu-vrtti, nor tougher. Hence it is clear that the commentator is not the well-known Śrī Haribhadra Sūri, who attracted one thousand four hundred and forty four Buddha monks with a desire of hurling them into seething flames, but who, becoming aware of his fault through an indirect hint of a nun Mahattarā gave up the idea, and instead comoposed an equal number of works by way of repentence. He has expressed his reverence towards that benign nun by calling himself "the son of Yakini Mahattarā", and has shown his deep berevement resulting from the tragic and trecherous death of his two pupils at the hand of Baudhas by addeing a single word "viraha”-a word most intensely suggestive of his deep-seated feeling-at the end of each of his work. The fact that these two distinguishing marks are absent in the above-mentioned commentary, makes it clear that it's author Haribhadra Sūri is the same as the pupil of Śrī Devasūri of the Brhad-gaccha, and not the other.
A very useful bilioigaphy on the author is the following, no. 1 being quite exhaustive and entirely indispensible :
1.
Gujarātī Introduction (in Devanāgarī script) to Tattvārtha-Sūtra, edited by Pt. Sukhlāl, 1940, Ahmedabad. English and Sanskrit Introduction to Part I and II, Śrī-Tattvārthādhigamasūtram, edited by Prof. Hirālāl Kapadia, 1926-1930, Surat.
English Introduction to Tattvārthādhigamasūtram in the Sacred Books of the Jainas Series, edited by J. L. Jaini, 1920.
The Section "Umāsvāti" in Svāmi-Samantabhadra in Hindi by Pt. Jugalkishor Mukhatār 1925, Bombay.
Pt. Sukhalal has made a few comments on the present work in the abovementioned work.