Samantabhadra (Jain monk)
Samantabhadra was a Jain ācārya who lived about the later part of the second century CE. He was a proponent of the Jaina doctrine of Anekāntavāda. The Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra is the most popular work of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra lived after Umaswami but before Pujyapada.
Life
Samantabhadra is said to have lived from 150 CE to 250 CE. He was from southern India during the time of Cholas. He was a poet, logician, eulogist and an accomplished linguist. He is credited with spreading Jainism in southern India.Samantabhadra, in his early stage of asceticism, was attacked with a disease known as bhasmaka. As, digambara monks don't eat more than once in a day, he endured great pain. Ultimately, he sought the permission of his preceptor to undertake the vow of Sallekhana. The preceptor denied the permission and asked him to leave monasticism and get the disease cured. After getting cured he again joined the monastic order and became a great Jaina ācārya.
Thought
Samantabhadra affirmed Kundakunda's theory of the two nayas - vyavahāranaya and niścayanaya. He argued however that the mundane view is not false, but is only a relative form of knowledge mediated by language and concepts, while the ultimate view is an immediate form of direct knowledge. Samantabhadra also developed further the Jaina theory of syādvāda.Works
Jaina texts authored by Ācārya Samantabhadra include:- Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra - The Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra discusses the conduct of a Śrāvaka in detail.
- Gandhahastimahabhasya, a monumental commentary on the Tattvartha Sutra. The Gandhahastimahābhāṣya, with the exception of its Maṅgalācaraṇa, is extant now. The Maṅgalācaraṇa is known as the 'Devāgama stotra' or Āpta-mīmāṁsā.
- Āpta-mīmāṁsā- A treatise of 114 verses, it discusses the Jaina concept of omniscience and the attributes of the Omniscient.
- Svayambhūstotra - A Sanskrit adoration of The Twenty-four Tīrthaṅkaras - 143 verses. It was later translated by Dhyanatray in Agra.
- Yuktyanuśāsana- Sixty-four verses in praise of Tīrthaṅkara Vardhamāna Mahāvīra.Jinaśatakam - Poetical work written in Sanskrit in praise of twenty-four Jinas.
- Tattvānuśāsana