Acharya Hasti Mala
Rāja gaccha had been a very glorious gaccha of Śvetāmbara sect. Number of influential and scholar ācāryas belonged to this gaccha. So they have contributed immensely to the preaching and spreading of Jainism.
The description of the origin of this gaccha as available in Jain literature is briefly given below.
King of Talavāḍā (before inhabitation of Tahanagaḍha a capital town nearby) who later on became famous as Nanna Sūri, in his life as a householder went on dear hunt. Aiming at a herd of running dears in the forest, he shot an arrow. When he went near the herd, he found that a pregnant female dear was hit by his arrow. Seeing the female dear and her newly born cub suffering in pain, the king started hating himself and repented. While repenting for the sin, he developed total detachment from the world. Leaving his kingdom, family and palace like a straw, he left Talavāḍā. Due to his meritorious karmas he met a monk belonging to forest dwelling tradition. The king listened to the essence of religion. Understanding the true doctrine, he immediately got initiated into monkhood with that monk. The newly initiated monk was given the name Nannamuni. With great humility and diligence, monk Nanna learned many skills and scriptures. Ācārya of forest dwelling tradition, seeing his end in sight and thinking of Nanna as fully competent anointed Nanna to the post of a ācārya.
After the death of his guru, Nanna Sūri started undertaking routine wandering to many places Alongwith his disciples to preach Jainism. Nanna Sūri was a great scholar, expert speaker and gifted. Hence his gaccha made rapid progress. As Nanna Sūri was born in a royal family, he was popular as Rājaṛṣi and his gaccha as Rāja gaccha. In this way Rāja gaccha in the middle of V.N. 14th century started shining like the sun during the middle of the day. Ācāryas of Rāja gaccha considered themselves as belonging to Candra gaccha primarily thereby establishing Rāja gaccha as a branch of Candra gaccha.
Pradyumana Sūri was the disciple of Sahadeva Sūri who in turn was the disciple of Ajitayaśovādī Sūri and who in turn was the disciple of this Ācārya Nanna Sūri. Ācārya Pradyumana Sūri had from his childhood acquired deep knowledge of Vedas and Vedāṃgas. While acquiring knowledge of all other religions, he acquired knowledge of Jain philosophy in a comparative manner. In this way he realized that the practice of Jain principles of right belief, right knowledge, right conduct and right penance is the only and right way to achieve complete freedom from the great pains of this world of transmigration, like birth, death, old age, sickness, etc. With such feelings deeply entrenched in his mind, he took initiation in Rāja gaccha by its Ācārya Sahadeva Sūri. While serving his guru, he acquired in depth knowledge of Jain scriptures. By acquiring deep knowledge in logic, he became a great debater. He therefore had scriptural discussions with great scholars in the royal courts of Savālaka, Gwalior, Tribhuvanagiri, Cittauḍa etc. We find mentions in Jain literature that Pradyumanasūri won 84 such debates in his life. By defeating a Digambara ācārya (in the royal courts of Śiśodiyā lineage king Allaṭa Vikram 922-1010), he made him his disciple.
After Ācārya Pradyumana Sūri, Abhayadeva Sūri, who became famous as 'Tarka paṃcānana Abhayadevasūri' became the 5th ācārya of Rāja gaccha. He was also a scholar of very high standard. This Abhayadeva Sūri wrote a 25000 verse long ṭīkā on Sanmati Tarka by Ācārya Siddha Sena which became famous as Mahārṇava later. In this text, hundreds of doctrines of Jain and other philosophies are discussed.
By coincidence, this Abhayadeva Sūri also belonged to a royal family and so he was also respectfully addressed as Rājaṛṣi.
Dhaneśwara Sūri: The name of the successor of Ācārya Abhayadeva Sūri is Ācārya Dhaneśwara Sūri. Dhaneśwara Sūri was the ruler Kardama by name of Tribhuvanagiri. This Kardama Rāja had somehow poisonous boils all over his body. He got treated from many medical experts (vaidyas) but his deadly disease did not subside a bit. One day Ac Abhayadeva Sūri arrived in his kingdom. Kardama Rāja had heard great praise of his penance, knowledge and detachment. Somehow he went to see Tarka paṃcānana Abhayadeva Sūri and pay obeisance in his rest place. He was greatly impressed his great auspicious aura and personality and started feeling a little comfort in his pain. Kardama Rāja thought that having a sight of this personality had caused such a relief to his pain; then his ailment can be definitely cured being in his company or showering his body with the washings of his body. Kardama Rāja immediately sent for some pure water, washed Abhayadeva Sūri's feet and spread that on the boils and wounds, face and all other parts of his body. His surprise had no bounds when he saw all his boils and wounds cured immediately and he started feeling perfectly well. All the burning sensation disappeared.
Afterwards Kardama Rāja listened to the religious sermons of Abhayadeva Sūri. The sermons enlightened him with true knowledge and he was obsessed with the feelings of detachment. He anointed his son to the throne and got himself anointed in Śramaṇa monkhood by Paṃcānana Abhayadeva Sūri. Ācārya Abhayadeva Sūri named his newly initiated disciple as Dhaneśwara remaining in the service of his teacher. Monk Dhaneswara learnt all the scriptures and various arts and became an expert. In his last time, Abhaya Deva Sūri, thought that Dhaneswara was, from all points, fit and made him the Acharya of Raja Gachha.
Besides being a scholar of high order, Ācārya Dhaneśwara was an excellent orator as well. His voice was full of vigour and sweetness also. He achieved victory in many scriptural debates. During his time, Rāja gaccha became a very prominent and influential gaccha. Dhaneśwara enlightened a number of kings with spiritual discourses and made them the followers of Jainism.
We also find mentions in literature saying that in Cittauḍa nagara, he converted 18000 Brahmins to Jainism by his sermons. He had eighteen disciples in his gaccha with high scholarship in scriptures. Judging the expertise of all, he anointed all the eighteen disciples to the posts of ācāryaand so eighteen branches of Rāja gaccha started functioning.
Out of the eighteen branches of Rāja gaccha of Dhaneśwara Sūri, the one whose principal area was chithoud became famous as Chaitrawal gachha. The successor of Dhaneśwara Sūri was Ācārya Ajīta Siṃha Sūri. Ācārya Ajīta Siṃha Sūri's successor was Ācārya Vardhamāna Sūri.
This Vardhamāna Sūri between Vikram 980-991anointed Viramuni, disciple of Ācārya Vimalacandra Sūri belonging to forest dwelling gaccha as his successor ācārya. In this way a number of scholar & influential ācāryas and monks belonged to Rāja gaccha.
