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candra-sūri (V.S. 1139). It has eight prastāvas, of which the first four are devoted to the details of the earlier births of Mahāvīra. Devendra alias Nemi-candra-sūri, a contemporary of Guņa-candra, has composed the Mahāvīra-cariya (V.S. 1141, Bhavanagar; V.S. 1973) entirely in Prakrit verses, nearly 2400 in number, which describe 26 births (bhava) from that of Marici to the one of Mahāvīra. Just some years later (V.S. 1168) Deva-bhadra-gaņi too composed Mahāvīra-cariya (Ahmedabad 1945).
(b) Biographies of Mahāvira in Sanskrit Leaving the doctrinal text, namely the Tattvārtha-sūtra, the Sanskrit language was used in Jaina literature much later than expected. Of course, there is Siddhasena Divākara who has addressed the first five of his hymns to Mahāvīra. Among the earlier Sanskrit compositions there is the stylistic dharmakathā, namely the Varāniga-carita of Jațila or Jațācārya, and the Padma-carita of Ravişena (676 A.D.); both of them earlier than the Kuvalaya-mālā (A.D. 779). Jinasena and his pupil Guņabhadra had their Mahā-purāņa (in Sanskrit) completed in c. Saka 820. It deals thoroughly and exhaustively with the lives of Tīrthakaras. The first 46 parvans are known by the title ādi-purāṇa which covers the biographies of Rşabha-deva and Bharata, who are respectively the first Tirthakara and first Cakravartin. The parvans 47-76 are called Uttara-purāņa (Varanasi, 1954; now New Delhi). It is composed by Guņa-bhadra; and it covers the lives of remaining 23 Tirthakaras and the rest of Salākā-puruşas. Here the life of Mahāvīra is described in the concluding three parvans (74-76) in nice verses, the total number of which comes to 549 +691 + 578 = 1818. About two hundred seventy-five years later, Hemacandra composed an extensive Trisasti-salākā-puru şa-carita (Bhavnagar, 1913) in ten parvans, the last parvan being devoted to the life of Mahāvira. Meru-tunga has written the Mahāpuruşa-carita with svopajña commentary (c. 1300 A.D.) the five
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