Person · Jain polymath & grammarian · India
Hemachandra
Also known as Hemachandra at Anahilavada Patan
The 12-century Jain scholar Hemachandra (1089-1172), the greatest polymath of medieval Jainism, who worked at the Chaulukya court of Jayasimha Siddharaja (ruled 1092-1143) and his successor Kumarapala (ruled 1143-1172) at Anhilwad Patan. Hemachandra's conversion of Kumarapala to Jainism in the 1140s made Gujarat a formally Jain-ruled state for a generation and ended animal slaughter in the Chaulukya territories. His scholarly output included the Siddha-Hema-Shabdanushasana (a comprehensive Sanskrit-Prakrit grammar), the Yoga-shastra (Jain yoga manual), the Trishashti-shalaka-purusha-charitra (biographies of the 63 great Jain figures), the Abhidhana-chintamani (Sanskrit thesaurus), and the Kavyanushasana (poetics). Hemachandra's elevation to the status of 'Kalikala-sarvajna' ('all-knowing of the Kali Yuga') by Jain tradition reflects his breadth. His tomb at Patan is a Jain pilgrimage.
- Date
- 1089–1172
- Function
- Science & medicine
- Patron dynasty
- Solanki / Chaulukya
- Condition
- historical person
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 23.850, 72.120
About the place
Placed at Patan, the Chaulukya capital where he worked under Jayasimha Siddharaja and Kumarapala and wrote his grammar, lexicons and the Trishashtishalakapurushacharita.
Connections (2)
- PatronageTaranga hill
Hemachandra wrote his grammar of Sanskrit and six Prakrits for Siddharāja Jayasimha of Gujarat and then converted the next king, Kumārapāla, who built Tāranga and banned animal slaughter across the kingdom. A grammarian changing a dynasty's religious policy is unusual enough; the grammar itself is the principal source for Apabhramsha, the stage from which the modern north Indian languages descend.
- PatronageJayasiṃha Siddharāja
Hemachandra wrote the Siddha-Hema-shabdanushasana — a grammar of Sanskrit and six Prakrits — at Jayasimha's commission, and the tradition is that the king ordered it because Gujarat had had to import a grammar from the Paramara court at Dhar and he found that intolerable. Hemachandra went on to serve Kumarapala, produced lexicons, a poetics, a history of the dynasty and the Trishashtishalakapurusha charita, and is the reason Gujarat has a classical literature of its own.
On these journeys
Sources
Hemachandra’s works; Jain manuscript traditions; histories of Solanki Gujarat.
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