Banarasidas

Banarasidas was a Shrimal Jain businessman and poet of Mughal India. He is known for his poetic autobiography - Ardhakathānaka, (The Half Story), composed in Braj Bhasa, an early dialect of Hindi linked with the region around Mathura. It is the first autobiography written in an Indian language. At the time, he was living in Agra and was 55 years old - the "half" story refers to the Jain tradition, where a "full" lifespan is 110 years.

Banarasidas was born in a Shrimal Shvetambara Jain family. His father Kharagsen was a jeweller in Jaunpur. He spent his childhood in Jaunpur but later shifted to Agra. He is one of the leading proponents of the Adyatma movement, which eventually led to the Terapanth sect of the Digambar Jains.

Banarasidas appears to have been a better poet than a businessman; at one stage he relates how after incurring several business losses (which he lied about), his wife gave him twenty rupees that she had saved up. At times a friend of the nawab of Jaunpur Chini Kilechkhan, at other times persecuted, he had to flee to other cities.

Despite the long life expectancy inherent in the title of his work Ardhakathānaka, Banarasidas died two years after writing it, in 1643.

Banarasidas is known for his works, Moha Vivek Yuddha, Banārasi Nāmamāla (1613) Banārasivilāsa (1644), Samayasāra Nātaka (1636) and Ardhakathanaka (1641) in Braj Bhasa.

The Banārasi Nāmamāla is a lexicographic work based on Dhananjaya's Nāmamāla in Sanskrit.

The Banārasivilāsa is an anthology of his poetic works collected by Pandit Jagjivan. It was completed in 1644.

The Samayasāra Nātaka is a work on the Jain philosophy, largely based on Kundakunda's Samayasāra (a Digambara text), its Sanskrit commentary by Amritachandra and Hindi commentary by Rajamalla.

The Ardhakathānaka describes his transition from an unruly youth, to a religious realization by the time the work was composed. The work is notable for many details of life in Mughal times - Banarasidas lived during the reign of Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan. He appears to have been an occasional chess partner of Emperor Shahjahan (this is not mentioned in the Ardhakathanaka though).

The following stanzas describe the effect of Akbar's sudden death in 1605 - the uncertainty of succession induced widespread fear among the wealthier classes:

ghar-ghar dar-dar kiye kapaaT,

haTavaanii nahi.n baithe haaT.

bhale vastra aru bhuushaNa bhale,

te sab gaaDhe dharatii tale.

ghar-ghar sabani visaahe shashhtra,

logan pahine moTe vastra.

u.nch niich kouu nahi.n pahichaan,

dhanii daridrii bhaye samaan.

At this time, Banarasidass slipped and fell and cut his head on the pavement; his mother treated the wound with burnt cloth. After a week, Jahangir ascended the throne at Agra and peace was restored. People relaxed. The rich started to again dress in fine clothes and jewelry.