Prabhācandra (c. 11th century CE) was a

Śvetāmbara The Śvetāmbara (; also spelled Shwetambara, Shvetambara, Svetambara or Swetambara) is one of the two main branches of Jainism, the other being the Digambara. ''Śvetāmbara'' in Sanskrit means "white-clad", and refers to its ascetics' practi ...

monk, grammarian, biographer, philosopher and author of several philosophical books on

Jainism Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religions, Indian religion whose three main pillars are nonviolence (), asceticism (), and a rejection of all simplistic and one-sided views of truth and reality (). Jainism traces its s ...

Life

Prabhachandra was a ''

monk'' who flourished in 11th century CE. Prabhāvakacarita is a Jain text devoted to history, composed by him. While Prabhāvakacarita is dedicated to the lives of Jain scholars of the Shvetambara tradition, it is often quoted in the context of contemporary history, often dealing with the time of Acharya

Hemachandra Hemacandra was a 12th century () Śvetāmbara Jaina acharya, ācārya, scholar, poet, mathematician, philosopher, yogi, wikt:grammarian, grammarian, Law, law theorist, historian, Lexicography, lexicographer, rhetorician, logician, and Prosody ...

. It is a major source of the information on the society in that era. Prabhāvakacarita includes a mention of use a parachute in ancient India. According to him, Kumarapala converted to

and started worshipping

Ajitanatha Ajitanatha (lit. invincible) was the second ''tirthankara'' of the present age, ''avasarpini'' (half time cycle) according to Jainism. He was born to king Jitashatru and Queen Vijaya at Ayodhya in the Ikshvaku dynasty. He was a liberated soul ...

after conquering

Ajmer Ajmer () is a city in the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Ajmer district and Ajmer division. It lies at the centre of Rajasthan, earning it the ...

Works

* '' Prabhavaka Charita'' (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''Prabhavakacarita''): Biographies of Jain monks Prabhachandra gives accounts of acharyas from the first century of the Vikram era to 13th century, concluding with the account of

. It gives an account of 22 acharyas, including Vajraswami, Kalaka, Haribhadra, Bapabhatti, Manatunga, Mahendra Suri (which includes an account of poet DhanapalaDhanapāla and His Times: A Socio-cultural Study Based Upon His Works, Ganga Prasad Yadava, Concept Publishing Company, 1982, p. 26) and Hemachandra. It concludes by including a prashati of the author himself.

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Life

Works

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Further reading