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DHARMA SURI - GUNACANDRA ENCOUNTER 139

druma )_t perhaps wilh a pun on the prefix Dharma.² One olher work, the Gfhi-dharma-parigraha-parimina, also dated in S.l 186, seems lo be his work. A psalm on the iśśvata (etemal) Jaina tfrthas,⁴ and a scnsitively rendered hymn in praise of Jina Parśva⁵ are among the olher known lilcrary productions retlecting his talent at composing devotional Sanskrit poetry. Jinaprabha SGri of Kharatara gaccha, in the “PhalaYarddhi-PatrŚYanatha-kalpa” inside his famous KalpapradTpa (C.A.D.l 333)⁶, credits him lo have consecrated the image of the renowned Jina Pfirśva of Phalodi in S.l 181 / A.D.1125.⁷ Dharma Suri also had deeply iinpressed the CfihamSna monarch Visaladeva VigraharSja IV (A.D. 1153-1163), successor of ArnorSja, by his didaclic and expository skills.⁸ The King, in defcrenee to Suri’s admonishment, forbade violence for the lllh day of the monlh, and, also at his instance, founded a magnificent Jaina tempie called ‘Raja-Yihara’ at Sakambhari (Sambhar) near Ajmer.⁹ As for the Digambara divine Gunacandra, practically nothing is traceable from the known Digambara Jaina lilcrary sources, though a smali but significant evidcnee from epigraphieal side on his prcsence in Rajasthan in the time of CShamSna Arnorśłja is available and will be noticed in the scąucl.

Perhaps the earliest literary notice on the Ajmer contestation between the two churchcs is encountercd in the Mudhta-Kumudacandra-prakarana (t\ latter half of the 12th cenlury A.D.), a play in Sanskrit by Yaśaścandra, which in main narrates the background, actualily, and consequence of the doctrinal debate between VSdi Deva Suri and Kumudacandra.¹⁰ A dialogue inside the play between two followers of Dcva Suri, Nagadeva and Thahada by name, makes a tacit, though somewhat unplcasant, allusion to the debacie of Gunacandra at the assembly of Arnoraja, the name of Dharmaghosa Suri, however, is not mentioned in the contcxt :

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That the disputant from the Svetambara side in this Ajmer incident was Dharmaghosa Suri is clarificd from the statcments of the immediate disciple and grand-disciples of Dharmaghosa Suri (cf. Tables 2 and 3). Yaśobhadra Suri, the dircct disciple of Dharma Suri, in the eulogislic colophon of his V/Va/a/ra(gloss or commcntary) of the Agamika- Vastu-vicarasara of Jinavallabha Suri of Kharatara gaccha (c\ latc llth cent. A.D.), lakes an unequivocal notę of the debate and ils outcome; ¹¹ this notice can hardly be later than the