A TWELTH CENTURY HANDBOOK ON SVETÂMBARA JAINISM

Translated by  Olle Quarnström
 
 
 

The Yogasâstra and its voluminous auto-commentary, the Svopajnavrtti,  is the most comprehensive treatise on Svetâmbara Jainism known to us. Written in the 12th century by Hemacandra, it was instrumental in the survival and growth of Jainism in India as well as in the  spreading  of Sanskrit culture within Jaina circles.

Its influence extended far beyond confessional and geographical borders and in the course of time it came to serve as a handbook not only for the Jain community in Gujarat but also among Jains in East Africa, Great Britain and North America.

Hemacandra's account of Jainism consists of a systematic presentation of a set of ideas and practices originally belonging to the Svetâmbara canonical scriptures and traditions molded into a coherent whole with the help of a long row of scholastic thinkers, such as Umâsvati and Haribhadrasûri.

In addition, Hemacandra integrates innovations of his own as well as non-Jaina elements of pan-Indian and Saiva provenance, attesting to a strong Tantric influence on medieval Jainism. Some of these elements came to be perpetually included within Svetâmbara orthopraxy and orthodoxy due to the normative status that came to be acquired by the Yogasâstra.

The present scholarly translation is the first of its kind into a Western language.