Hemachandra, grammarian, historian, and court acharya to two Chaulukya kings of Gujarat, wrote the great Sanskrit epic of the sixty-three illustrious persons and persuaded King Kumarapala to rule by Jain ethics, restricting slaughter across the kingdom. His grammar made him the shaper of the Gujarati language, and his learning earned him the title Kalikala Sarvajna, the omniscient of the age. No Jain teacher has stood closer to political power.
Tagged: Jain Shvetambara
The Event
- Date
- 1089-1172 (exact)
- Era
- Classical and Medieval; Standard periodization of Jain history
- Location
- Gujarat; today Gujarat, India
- Traditions
- Jainism
- Streams
- Shvetambara
- Key figures
- Hemachandra, Jayasimha Siddharaja, Kumarapala
- Key texts
- Trishashtishalakapurushacharitra, Yogashastra
Primary Sources
- The Jain inscriptional and temple record of the period.
Secondary Sources
- Dundas, Paul. The Jains. 2nd ed., Routledge, 2002.
- Cort, John E. Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. Oxford University Press, 2001.
Provenance: HIST-0608; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
Related on This Site
- A Kalpasutra Folio Art Entry
- The Dilwara Temples Art Entry
- The Gujarat Manuscript Ateliers Artist
- Digambara–Shvetambara split History Event
- First Council at Pataliputra History Event
- Mahavira (24th Tirthankara) History Event
- Parshvanatha (23rd Tirthankara) History Event
- Shvetambara canon committed to writing History Event