Trishasti Shalaka Purusa Caritra Part 3

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Helen M Johnson
Publisher: Oriental Research Institute Vadodra

Page 28

INTRODUCTION
Book IV of the Trişastiśalākāpuruşacaritra consists of the biographies of five Arhats, five Baladevas, five Vasudevas, five Prativāsudevas, and two Cakravartins. The Śreyānsanāthacaritra includes the biographies of the first Baladeya, Vāsudeva, and Prativāsudeva and each of the four following biographies of the Arhats includes one of a Baladeva, Väsudeva, and Prativasudeva. The lives of the first group, Acala, Triprstha, and Ašvagriva, are treated at great length. Indeed, all the biographies of the Baladevas, Vāsudevas, and Prativāsudevas are given in more detail in the Trişastio than anywhere else I could find. They are treated very cursorily in other works.
The subject of Hemacandra's sources and his imitators would require a volume in itself; as, in one form or another, the well-known episodes in Hindu, as well as Jain, literature are incorporated in the Trişastio. Naturally, Hemacandra follows early Jain versions rather than Hindu ones. The story of Sanatkumāra is a popular one. The versions best known to Europeans are those from the commentary to the Uttarādhyayanasūtra, edited by Jacobi in his Māhārāștri Erzählungen and translated by Meyer; the one from Haribhadra's Nemināthacaritra, also edited and translated by Jacobi; and the one in the Kathākośa translated by Tawney. It occurs also in the Pārsvanāthacaritra, treated by Bloomfield in his Life and Stories of the Jaina Savior Pārsvanātha Hemacandra's version is the most elaborate of all.
Book V is devoted entirely to śāntinātha with a wealth of detail equaled only in the Adiśvaracaritra and the Mahāviracaritra. But, as sāntinātha is one of the favorite Tirthankaras with Jain authors, even Hemacandra's detailed biography is exceeded by others, e.g.