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Pravacanasara
explanation of each gatha is given and then follows a bhävärtha of the gatha. As Hemaraja himself tells us, his commentary is mainly based on that of Amytacandra; the bhavärtha generally summarises the stiff but important remarks of Amytacandra. There is a clarity and smoothness about his explanation. It is a clear proof of his intelligent insight that he could compose such a lucid commentary out of the bewilderingly stiff material from Amṛtacandra's commentary.
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RELATIONS AND WORKS OF HEMARĀJA.-Pāṇḍe Hemarāja was a respectable resident of Agra, and he belonged to Garga gotra. He had a noble daughter Jaint by name who was married to Nandalāla. Lālā Bulākīdāsa was the son of this learned lady, and it was to commemorate the name of his revered mother that he rendered into Hindi, at her request, the Pandavapurana of Subhacandra. Hemaraja was the pupil of Pandit Rūpacandra. Besides his Hindi commentaries on Palcästikäya and Pravacanasära, he has metrically rendered Bhaktamara into Hindi and has explained in prose Gömmatasära and Nayacakra.1
[p. 111] THE OCCASION OF COMPOSITION.-Hemarāja wrote his commentary on Pravacanasara, as he says in his prasasti, at the instance of Kumarapala, a pious house-holder from Agra. Kumarapala represented to him that, as Samayasara was already explained in sweet language by Rajamalla, it was necessary that Pravacanasära should also be explained without delay whereby the religion of Jina might flourish in all its branches; and requested him to write a Hindi commentary on it and receive the fruit of having glorified Jainism. In the prasasti on Pravacanasaratika he pays respects to Shah Jahan. This commentary was completed on Sunday the 5th of the bright half of Magha in the year 1709 which corresponds 1653 A.D. when Shah Jahan was on the throne of Delhi.2 His Nayacakravacanika was completed in Samvat 1724 (1668 A.D.)
6. THE PRAKRIT DIALECT OF PRAVACANASARA
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.-It is rather premature to attempt an exhaustive grammar of the gathas of Kundakunda from his various works, because the various editions of Kundakunda's works, that we have today, simply represent readable individual MSS., and can hardly be called critical, as we understand that term to-day. Even the present text of Pravacanasāra is not strictly critical; it represents, to a great extent, the Prakrit text as preserved by Jayasena in his Sanskrit commentary; but it has, however, an advantage that it is accompanied by a table of various readings drawn from some independent MSS., one accompanied by
1 This information is mainly based on Pt. Premi's essay on Jaina Hindi Literature in Jaina Hitaishi, Vol. XIII, pp. 10, 17.
2 Bhandarkar: Collected works Vol. II p. 224.
3 There is a Hindi metrical version of Pravacanasara by Vṛndāvana. He was born in samvat 1848. He was an Agravala of Goyal gotra. His father's name was Dharmacandra. He lived in Benares. He has written some works on Jaina ritual; and Pt. Premi says that his Chandośataka is a model text-book (Premi: Ibidem, pp 22-3).
4 This section is reprinted here with a few modifications and additions from the Journal of the University of Bombay, Vol. II, part vi. I am thankful to the Publication Board that granted so kindly my request for permission to reprint this article in the Introduction of Pravacanasara.
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