| Religion: | Jainism |
| Sect: | Digambar |
| Birth Date: | 920 CE |
| Honorific-Prefix: | Aacharya Shri |
| Honorific-Suffix: | Somadeva Suri |
Somadeva Suri was a south Indian Jain monk of the 10th century CE (fl. 959–66, possibly born in Bengal region about 920), author of a work known as "Upasakadyayana" "chapter on lay followers (upasakas)", a central work of Digambara shravakacara literature, i.e. instructions and prescriptions for shravakas or Jain lay followers.[1]
Somadeva was a disciple of Acharya Nemideva of Devasangha section of Mula Sangh (associated with Akalankadeva). Somadeva composed Yashstilaka in the domain of Vagaraj, a feudatory of Rashtrakuta Krishna III. He is mentioned in copperplate and an inscription of the Chalukya clan.
Vadiraja, author of Yashodhara-charita, and Pushpasena, (the teacher of Vadibhasimha, author of Gadyachintamani, were both disciples of Somadeva Suri.[2]
Somadeva Suri was a member of the Gauda Sangha. Before 957, he was at the court of the Pratihara king Mahendrapala II, at Kanyakubja (modern Kannauj). There, he wrote Niti-vakya-amrita, and possibly Trivarga-Mahedra-Matali-jalpa.[3]
Later, he migrated the Vemulavada Chalukya kingdom. There, he composed Yashodhara-charita (or Yashas-tilaka-champu, c. 959) during the reign of Baddega II, at Gangadhara town.[3]
"Upasakadyayana" is a section of the champu text Yashastilaka. Girish Karnad's play Bali is based on Yashastilaka.[4]
Somadeva Suri also wrote the Nitivakyamrtam "Nectar of the Science of Polity" (ed. Sundaralala Sastri 1976, Menta 1987), a treatise on statecraft. The text of the Nitivakyamrtam mentions that Somadeva was also the author of a literary work called Yashastilaka (see Kavyamala, 70).
He is sometimes regarded as a "revolutionary thinker of early medieval India", in his works he discusses the vices (pratyuhasamuha) which brought to the country the conquest of the Muslims (Tajikas).[5] It is notable that he describes the use of hydraulics for irrigating a garden.[6]