History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s6.24

v3.c41.s6.24

The story of the life of this great Jain teacher is not obscure as that of Kumārila or Śankara; for he is associated with the reigns of two great kings of Gujarat, Jayasinha Siddharāja and Kumārapāla. It does not, however, appear (as we once thought) that he was a southern Jain or he received his inspiration from the south. Indeed the Jain teachers of the south were all Digambaras, who, it may be admitted, carry the doctrine of renunciation to all its logical demands. The Jains of Gujarat and Rajputana were and are mostly Śvetāmbaras who allow two white clothes to their Munis; and Hemachandra was a Śvetāmbara both as student and teacher. He was born in a Jain Vaiśya family in Gujrarat and was given in early life by his mother to her Jain teacher who saw his great intelligence and his future promise. He became an Āchārya and came to Anhilwād as the head of its Jain sanctuary. His birth is placed in 1084 A. D. and death n 1168 A. D. at the age of 84. He signalised himself by his great works viz. his Sanskrit and Prakrit grammar, his Kāvya Dvyāśraya wherein the history of the Chālukyas of Gujarat themselves is told and illustrations of his grammatical rules are also given and his Deśi Nāmamālā or dictionary of Deśi or local (not Sanskrit) words. It is said that he was once taunted by a Hindu pandit that after all he used the grammar of a Hindu (Pāṇini). He thereupon composed an exhaustive grammar of Sanskrit and Prakrit himself. The grammatical treatise was taken in a great procession laid on the temples of an elephant on which the author was himself seated and was deposited in the royal treasury. It was dedicated to Jayasinha Siddharāja and hence named Siddha Hema. Hemachandra does not appear to have travelled through India, but his influence on Kumārapāla was so preponderant that he procured several privileges for Jains from him and had animal slaughter prohibited on certain days sacred to the Jains.* The preponderance of Jainism in Gujarat may be dated from his time, at least, the great respect which is paid to the doctrine of Ahimsā in that land.