| Honorific-Prefix: | Acharya |
| Religion: | Jainism |
| Sect: | Digambara |
| Birth Date: | 2nd century CE |
| Works: | Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra, Āpta-mīmāṁsā, Jinaśatakam |
Samantabhadra was a Digambara acharya (head of the monastic order) who lived about the later part of the second century CE. He was a proponent of the Jaina doctrine of Anekantavada. The Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra is the most popular work of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra lived after Umaswami but before Pujyapada.
Samantabhadra is said to have lived from 150 CE to 250 CE. He was from southern India during the time of Chola dynasty. He was a poet, logician, eulogist and an accomplished linguist. He is credited with spreading Jainism in southern India.
Samantabhadra, in his early stage of asceticism, was attacked with a disease known as bhasmaka (the condition of insatiable hunger). As, digambara monks don't eat more than once in a day, he endured great pain. Ultimately, he sought the permission of his preceptor to undertake the vow of Sallekhana. The preceptor denied the permission and asked him to leave monasticism and get the disease cured. After getting cured he again joined the monastic order and became a great Jain Acharya.
Samantabhadra affirmed Kundakunda's theory of the two nayas - vyavahāranaya (‘mundane') and niścayanaya (ultimate, omniscient). He argued however that the mundane view is not false, but is only a relative form of knowledge mediated by language and concepts, while the ultimate view is an immediate form of direct knowledge. Samantabhadra also developed further the Jain theory of syādvāda.
Jain texts authored by Acharya Samantabhadra are:
Jinasena, in his celebrated work, Ādi purāṇa praises the Samantabhadra as