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Kavyanusasana
innumerable temples - so much so that a newly discovered Jaina idol or an old Jaina temple whose builder is unknown is attributed to him. He is specially mentioned as a king of Ujjayinī ruling Western India, and one who had propagated Jaina faith even in Anārya countries. Considering the fact that Jainism found a strong foot - hold in Western India and Gujarāt the tradition should be regarded as embodying historical reality. Samprati's reign probably ended by about 197 B. C. - if we accept 237 – 36 B. C. as the year of Asoka's death and accept 40 years' interval as given by the Purānas.
: From about 180 B. C. to 100 B. C. we find traces of Bactrian - Greek sway in Saurashtra and Kachchha. Our main sources of information are the Bactrian - Greek coins found in Kathiawar and some references in Greek and Roman writers. Of these Bactrian - Greek rulers the most noteworthy is Menander. We find a helmated bust of this king with a Greek legend round it on the obverse of his coins, while on the reverse we find a figure of Athene Promachos with the Bactro-Pali legend' Mahārājaså Tradatasa Menandrasa.' The reference to camps, temples and wells by the author of the Periplus as those of Alexander is incorrect. The camps, temples and wells must have been those of Menander. He is the Milinda of the Milindapanhá - a Pali treatise in the form of a dialogue on the Buddhist philosophy. The dialogue is between Milinda and Nāgasena who solves his questions and converts his royal antagonist to Buddhism.
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