Hemaċandra's chance came when he was appointed spokesman of the Jaina community at Aṇhilvāḍa Pāṭaṇa to welcome the great Ċaulukya king, Jayasiṁha Siddharāja, on his return from a famous victory in Mālwā. His poem won the king's heart, and he was appointed court paṇḍit and court annalist in the royal capital. There he compiled two lexicons and wrote his famous Prākṛit grammar, with which the learned king was so delighted, that he engaged three hundred copyists for three years to transcribe it, and sent copies all over India. Hemaċandra was just as popular with Jayasiṁha's successor, Kumārapāla, whom, if he did not actually convert to Jainism, he at least persuaded to follow the Jaina rule of non-killing, and to build many temples. During this reign Hemaċandra continued to write a number of science hand-books, lives of Jaina saints, and other works, including a History of Gujarāt and the famous Yoga Śāstra and commentary thereon; and he also found time to instruct many scholars who carried on the literary tradition. (In Aṇhilvāḍa Pāṭaṇa one may still see the ink-stained stone on which Hemaċandra's cushion was placed, and where he dictated his works to his pupils.) About A. D. 1172 Hemaċandra died of self-starvation, in the approved Jaina fashion, shortly before his friend and patron Kumārapāla.
It is astonishing that with such a magnificent record of early writers the Jaina of to-day, despite their educational advantages, should number so few authors of note amongst them; their literary activity seems at present to find its chief outlet in journalism and pamphleteering.[1]
Modern Jaina literature is mostly in Gujarātī, but books in Hindī and in English are also numerous.
- ↑ It is interesting and encouraging to notice that out of every possible way of spreading their faith the Jaina have deliberately chosen as the best adapted for Oriental use the now classic methods selected by the great old Christian missionaries (true Tīrthaṅkara) of the past. Thus they have Jaina tracts, Jaina newspapers, Jaina schools and Jaina hostels; each sect has also its own Conference, with its Ladies' Day, and there are even Jaina Young Men's Associations.
