________________
8
INTRODUCTION
some sound proofs he has tried to establish that Vikramāditya who is well-known in Jain tradition is no other than Vikramāditya Balamitra. This Balamitra defeated the Śakas, killed Gardhabhilla and occupied the throne of Ujjaina in Samvat 453 of Vīra Nirvăņa and 17 years later that is Circa 470 he inangarated after his own name the Vikrama era. Looking to all these conflicting opinions, the contemporaneousness of Siddhasena with Vikramāditya is not useful in fixing his date because the date of Vikramaditya himself has not yet been fixed beyond doubt. The second error of Satīsacandra in fixing the date is this :-He considers the verse mentioning the nine jewels as one of historical authenticity and regards Kalidāsa and other eight persons as contemporaries of one another. But there is not a shred of evidence to show that all these nine persons were contemporaries. Moreover to say that the word Ksapaņaka means Siddhasena Divā kara is merely a gratuitous assumption. We cannnot identify Siddhasena with Kșapaņaka unless we have at hand a stronger evidence.
Many Jaina Pattā valies are written in order to fix the date of the chief Jaina Ācăryas. Now these Pattá valies are not always unreliable. Clatt and other scholars maintain that these Pattā valies contain many chronologies. Let us, therefore, try to fix the time of Divākara with the help of these Pattă valies.
Prabhāvaka Carita written by Prabhācandra in Vikrama 1334 has given in datail a chronological tradition of Siddhasena ; "First there lived Skandilācārya in the gronp of Pädalipta in the tradition of Vidyadhara. His
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
