Somadeva Suri was a south Indian

Jain monk Jain monasticism refers to the order of monks and nuns in the Jain community and can be divided into two major denominations: the ''Digambara'' and the '' Śvētāmbara''. The monastic practices of the two major sects vary greatly, but the ...

of the 10th century CE (

fl. ''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...

959–66, possibly born in Bengal region about 920), author of a work known as "Upasakadyayana" "chapter on lay followers (''upasakas'')", a central work of

Digambara ''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major Jain schools and branches, schools of Jainism, the other being ''Śvetāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic pract ...

''shravakacara'' literature, i.e. instructions and prescriptions for ''shravakas'' or Jain lay followers. He also authored

Yashastilaka ''Yashas-tilaka'' (IAST: Yaśas-tilaka) is a 10th-century champu (prose and verse) Sanskrit text that promotes the Jaina doctrine using the story of king Yashodhara. It was written by the Jaina writer Somadeva, in the Vemulavada Chalukya kingdom ...

, a 10th-century

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

champu Champu or Chapu-Kavya (Devanagari: चम्पू-काव्य) is a genre of literary composition in Indian literature. The word 'Champu' means a combination of poetry and prose. A ''champu-kavya'' consists of a mixture of prose (Gadya-Kav ...

on the life of a king Yasodhara.

Lineage

Somadeva was a disciple of Acharya Nemideva of Devasangha section of

Mula Sangh ''Digambara'' (; "sky-clad") is one of the two major schools of Jainism, the other being ''Śvetāmbara'' (white-clad). The Sanskrit word ''Digambara'' means "sky-clad", referring to their traditional monastic practice of neither possessing n ...

(associated with

Akalanka Akalanka nowiki/>IAST: Akalaṅka">IAST.html" ;"title="nowiki/>IAST">nowiki/>IAST: Akalaṅka(also known as ''Akalaṅkadeva'' and ''Bhatta Akalaṅka'') was a Jain logician whose Sanskrit-language works are seen as landmarks in Indian logic. ...

deva). Somadeva composed Yashstilaka in the domain of Vagaraj, a feudatory of

Rashtrakuta The Rashtrakuta Empire was a royal Indian polity ruling large parts of the Indian subcontinent between the 6th and 10th centuries. The earliest known Rashtrakuta inscription is a 7th-century copper plate grant detailing their rule from Manapu ...

Krishna III. He is mentioned in copperplate and an inscription of the Chalukya clan. Vadiraja, author of Yashodhara-charita, and Pushpasena, (the teacher of Vadibhasimha, author of Gadyachintamani, were both disciples of Somadeva Suri.

Residence

Somadeva Suri was a member of the Gauda

Sangha Sangha or saṃgha () is a term meaning "association", "assembly", "company" or "community". In a political context, it was historically used to denote a governing assembly in a republic or a kingdom, and for a long time, it has been used b ...

. Before 957, he was at the court of the

Pratihara The Pratihara dynasty, also called the Gurjara-Pratiharas, the Pratiharas of Kannauj or the Imperial Pratiharas, was a prominent medieval Indian dynasty which ruled over the Kingdom of Kannauj. It initially ruled the Gurjaradesa until its vic ...

king

Mahendrapala II Mahendrapala II (944–948) ascended the throne of the Pratihara Empire after his father Mahipala I. His mother was queen Prasadhana Devi. He reigned for short duration but the inscription found at Mandasor indicates that the Pratihara Empire ...

, at

Kanyakubja Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ) is an ancient city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located 113 km (71 mi) from Etawa ...

(modern Kannauj). There, he wrote ''Niti-vakya-amrita'', and possibly ''Trivarga-Mahedra-Matali-jalpa''. Later, he migrated the Vemulavada Chalukya kingdom. There, he composed ''Yashodhara-charita'' (or ''Yashas-tilaka-champu'', c. 959) during the reign of Baddega II, at Gangadhara town.

Works

"Upasakadyayana" is a section of the

text ''

''.

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian playwright, actor, film director, Kannada writer, and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwr ...

's play ''Bali'' is based on ''Yashastilaka''. Somadeva Suri also wrote the ''Nitivakyamrtam'' "Nectar of the Science of Polity" (ed. Sundaralala Sastri 1976, Menta 1987), a treatise on statecraft. The text of the ''Nitivakyamrtam'' mentions that Somadeva was also the author of a literary work called ''Yashastilaka'' (see Kavyamala, 70). He is sometimes regarded as a "revolutionary thinker of early medieval India", in his works he discusses the vices (pratyuhasamuha) which brought to the country the conquest of the Muslims (Tajikas). It is notable that he describes the use of hydraulics for irrigating a garden.Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering, Volume 4 of Physics & Physical Technology PT. 2, Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, 1965, p. 362

References

{{Authority control Indian Jain monks 10th-century Indian Jain writers 10th-century Jain monks 10th-century Indian monks 920s births