Siddhasena Divakara

Siddhasēna Divākara (Magadhi Prakrit: सिद्दसेन दिवाकर) was an acharya of Jainism in the fifth century CE. Siddhasēna was the best known Jain scholar of the time. He was like the illuminating lamp of the Jain order and therefore came to be known as Divākara "Lamp-Maker". He is credited with the authorship of many books, most of which are not available. Sanmatitarka is his best book on logic and is widely read even at present. The Kalyāṇamandirastōtram was also composed by him.

Life

Approximate 2000 years ago there lived a preceptor named Devarshi in the court of King Vikramaditya. Devarshi's son, Kumud (this was the birth name of Siddhasen Diwakar) was very handsome, smart and highly intelligent and so Devarshi sent him to the best monastery school of the time. There Kumud quickly mastered all the arts and sciences. Devarshi was very proud of his son. It was customary in those days to hold contests to determine who was more knowledgeable. Devarshi believed that Kumud would defeat anyone in such contests and Kumud did not believe his expectations. In a short amount of time, Kumud defeated everyone in the court of King Vikramaditya. From there he went to other prominent courts of India and was victorious every time. However these successive triumphs generated a sense of vanity in his mind and he started believing that there was no one was more learned than himself.