Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica

Author(s): Satyaranjan Banerjee
Publisher: Asiatic Society

Page 81

64
PROLEGOMENA TO PRAKRITICA et JAINICA
Calcutta, 2002,
Banerjee, Introducing Jainism, pp. 33-34).
Again it was in the 12th century that we had "the Omniscient of the Kali Age" (Kali-kala-sarvajña) Hemacandra (1088-1172A.D.) of Gujarat who not only wrote on Jain philosophy but also on grammar, lexicography, poetics and metrics, of the Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. In fact, the growth of Jainism was distinct after the monumental works of Hemacandra. It was because of Hemacandra that Gujarat became a main stronghold of the Śvetambara Jainas and had remained so for centuries. In fact, the Jain literature flourished to a great extent in the 12th and 13th centuries in Gujarat. Hemacandra wrote several works, such as, Siddha-hemaśabdānuśāsana, Dhatupatha, Uṇādi-sūtra, Lingānuśāsana on grammar; and, Abhidhana-cintamani, Anekārthasamgraha, Nighanțu-sesa. Ekākṣara-nāmamālā, Desīnāmamālā on lexicography; and Chando'nusāsana, Kāvyānuśāsana on metrics and rhetorics; and Duyāśrayakavya, Trişaṣṭi-salākā-puruṣa-carita, Parisişța-parvan (Sthaviravali), Jaina Rāmāyaṇa on Mahākāvyas; and Pramāṇa-mimāṁsā, Anya-yoga-vyava-cchedikā (in 32 verses) and Yogasăstra on philosophy. Hemacandra attacked on Brahmanical morality, particularly on Manu, and had shown convincingly that the morality as proclaimed by Manu was incompatible with the command of Ahimsā.
In the 17th century we also have Yaśovijaya (16241688 A.D.) whose contribution to Jainism was a turning point in the Jain history. He was the first who tried to reconcile the differences between the Śvetāmbara and the Digambara conflict. It was he who wanted "to prove that the Kevalin, the completely Enlightened, so long as he leads a physical life, must take nourishment, that women can attain to release, and that the ordinary objects of usage of the monks, garments etc, are not to be counted as "possessions", and that the saintly life does not exclude