________________
CHAPTER 10
Haribhadrasūri: A Legend in Catholicity
M. L. JAIN
Haribhadrasūri lived sometime between 700-770 AD. Some scholars consider an earlier period, while others still a later one. However frugal, the details available about him show that his father was Sankara Bhatta and his mother was Gangā, that he was born at Chittor (Rajasthan) and that he rose to be the Rāja-guru of Jitāri, the ruler of Chittor. Being a highly wellversed Vedic Brahmin scholar, he was so assured of his learning and considered himself so incomparable that he used to carry a Jambu twig to proclaim his supremacy as a unique peer in the entire Jambu-dvīpa. Later on he was converted to Jainism by Jinadatta-sūri at the instance of a nun, named Yākinī Mahattarā. When he realized the moment of his departure from this world, he undertook fast unto death in the traditional way the Jaina monks do. • He had a great command over both the Prakrit and the Sanskrit languages, as is evidenced from the trend that he led in the field of the Sanskrit commentaries on the authentic philosophical works in Prakrit comprising the Niryukțis and the Cūrņis. He wrote both in prose as well as in the verse, and enriched the Jaina scriptural literature to the extent of the supposedly 1,444 works. However, about 93 works are found to be authored by some of the many Haribhadra-sūris, out of
