Hemachandra in the context of "Jain text"

Jain literature (Sanskrit: जैन साहित्य) refers to the literature of the Jain religion. It is a vast and ancient literary tradition, which was initially transmitted orally. The oldest surviving material is contained in the canonical Jain Agamas, which are written in Ardhamagadhi, a Prakrit (Middle-Indo Aryan) language. Various commentaries were written on these canonical texts by later Jain monks. Later works were also written in other languages, like Sanskrit and Maharashtri Prakrit.

Jain literature is primarily divided between the canons of the Digambara and Śvētāmbara orders. These two main sects of Jainism do not always agree on which texts should be considered authoritative.

Yogaśāstra (lit. "Yoga treatise") is a 12th-century Sanskrit text by Hemachandra on Śvetāmbara Jainism. It is a treatise on the "rules of conduct for laymen and ascetics", wherein "yoga" means "ratna-traya" (three jewels), i.e. right belief, right knowledge and right conduct for a Sadhaka. As a manual with an extensive auto-commentary called Svopajnavrtti, it was instrumental to the survival and growth of Śvetāmbara tradition in western Indian states such as Gujarat and the spread of Sanskrit culture in Jainism.

The Yogasastra is unlike the conventional much older yoga texts found in Buddhism and Hinduism, but shows their influence. Probably titled "yoga" because its royal patron was attached to yogic traditions of 12th-century India, the Yogasastra treatise is a systematic exposition of Jain doctrine using the Svetambara scriptures (sruta) and tradition (sampradaya), as well as the teachings of many prior Jain scholars such as Umasvati, Subhachandra, and Haribhadra.

Maharashtri or Maharashtri Prakrit (Mahārāṣṭrī Prākṛta) is a Prakrit language of ancient as well as medieval India.

Maharashtri Prakrit was commonly spoken until 875 CE and was the official language of the Satavahana dynasty. Works like Karpūramañjarī and Gatha Saptashati (150 BCE) were written in it. Jain Acharya Hemachandra is the grammarian of Maharashtri Prakrit. Maharashtri Prakrit was the most widely used Prakrit language in western and southern India.

The Parishishtaparvan (IAST: Pariśiṣṭaparvan) also known as the Sthaviravalicharitra (IAST: Sthavirāvalīcaritra) is a 12th-century Sanskrit mahakavya by Hemachandra which details the histories of the earliest Jain teachers. The poem comprises 3,460 verse couplets divided into 13 cantos of unequal length and is also notable for providing information on the political history of ancient India.

The Trishashtishalakapurushacharitra (IAST: Triṣaṣṭiśalākāpuruṣacaritra; The Lives of the Sixty-three Illustrious People), an epic Sanskrit poem on the key figures in Jainism, was composed by Hemachandra at the request of the Chaulukya king, Kumarapala. The Sthaviravalicharitra (The Lives of the Jain Elders) is considered a self-contained sequel to this work and is consequently referred to as the Parishishtaparvan or The Appendix.

Old Western Rājasthāni (also known as Maru-Gurjari, Old Gujarātī) is the common ancestor of the modern Gujarati and Western Rajasthani languages which developed from Sanskrit and the Prakrit Apabhraṃśas, and was spoken around 8-14th centuries in Western India. The literary form of Old Western Rājasthāni, the Dingala language was in use as early as the 12th century. While the spoken Old Western Rajasthani gave way to medieval forms of Western Rajasthani and Gujarati, it flourished in its literary form as Dingala till the 19th century.

Early texts of the language display characteristic features such as direct/oblique noun forms, postpositions, and auxiliary verbs. It had three genders, as Gujarati does today, and by around the time of 1300 CE, a fairly standardized form of this language emerged. The belief that modern Rajasthani sporadically expressed a neuter gender was based on the incorrect conclusion that the [ũ] that came to be pronounced in some areas for masculine [o] after a nasal consonant was analogous to Gujarati's neuter [ũ]. A formal grammar, Prakrita Vyakarana, of the precursor to this language, Gurjar Apabhraṃśa, was written by Jain monk and eminent scholar Acharya Hemachandra Suri in the reign of Chaulukya king Jayasimha Siddharaja of Anhilwara (Patan).