संपादकीय

Summary

Swami Samantabhadra holds a highly distinguished position in the acharya tradition of Lord Mahavira, remembered with titles such as Kalikala Ganadhara, Bharatabhushana, and Adya Stutikara. He emerged during a transitional period in Indian philosophy when thinkers like Ashvaghosha and Nagarjuna presented partial truths as complete. In his timeless work Aaptamimamsa, he critically examined concepts of Ishvara, Kapila, Sugata, and Brahma, establishing the Vitaraga-Sarvajna Arhanta as the true Aapta. Through his devotional, philosophical, and logical compositions, he promoted sarvajnata, anekanta, daya, syadvada, and aparigraha. Later acharyas like Jinasena and Vadirajasuri reverently recalled him. He was a scholar of dharma, logic, grammar, literature, astrology, and Ayurveda, and a skilled debater. His available Sanskrit works include Svayambhustotra, Aaptamimamsa, Yuktyanushasana, Jinastutishataka, and Ratnakaranda Shravakachara. The first four are devotional yet philosophical, blending bhakti, jnana, and karma yoga. Jinastutishataka is a poetry-rich stuti kavya. He is honored as the first poet, first stutikara, and first shatakakara in the Digambara Sanskrit tradition, as earlier Jain Sanskrit literature existed only in sutra form. His period is confirmed as 120–185 CE. Born to a Nagavanshi king, he was initiated as a monk at eighteen and spent about half a century propagating Jain philosophy. He refuted one-sided philosophies of Mimamsakas, Sankhyas, Buddhists, Vaisheshikas, and Charvakas, establishing anekanta and syadvada. Acharya Hemachandra and Malayagiri Suri praised him as a stutikara.