________________
X. -
of the SUKRITASAMKIRTANA of ARISIMHA
X.-In Darbhavati or Dabhoi:
41-42. The placing of gold capitals on the temple of (Siva) Vaidyanatha, because the old ones were carried off by the king of Malava; and the erection of i statue of the sun-god (S. XI. 33). Jinaharsha mentions these (V. Char. III. 371 ), but ascribes them to Tejaḥpāla.
- On Mount Arbuda or Abū :
43. The building of a temple of Malladeva (by whom may be meant Mallideya or Mallinatha) for the benefit of his brother Malladeva (S. XI. 34). In the V. Char. VIII-76, it is stated that the temple for the benefit of Maladeva was built on Satrumjaya. Since only one temple of Neminatha built by Tejaḥpāla, is found on Abû, and its position makes it improbable that a second ever existed, the mistake may be on Arisimha's side.
८१
In this list of Vastupala's buildings the restorations of Brahman temples, as well as of the decoration of such buildings, have a special interest. They prove, as does also his worship of Siva-Somanatha in Devapattana (p. 77 above), that he was no exclusive Jaina, but was rather lax in his religous views, and thereby confirm some hints in the later Prabandhas on this point (see Kirtikaumudi p. xxii.). The reasons for his lax view may have lain partly, as Professor A. V. Kathvate says, in the passage quoted, in his familiar intercourse with the high priest Someśvara and other Brahman savants, but may partly be due to his position at the Brahman court of Dholka. The latter is hinted at by Jinaharsha also. He adds apologetically, on mentioning the worship of Śiva-Somanatha in Devapattana, that Vastupala performed this act to please his king.1 He also says further on, that the minister, at the command of his master,' prepared a munḍamala, or skull-chain' or tiara, adorned with rubies, for Śiva. These well-authenticated pieces of information have their significance in the judgment of cases where something similar is stated of court Jainas, as, for instance, of Hemachandra, in works less worthy of credit.
The second interesting point in the catalogue is the mention of only two temples on Girnar. This shews plainly that the great threefold temple, which now forms the principal ornament of the mountain, was not yet finished, perhaps not yet begun. The date of the six inscriptions, identical in their first parts, in the Vastupalavihāra, is Vikrama-Samvat 1288, Phalguna sudi 10, which according to Jacobi's calculation, Indian Antiquary, Vol. XVII. p. 151 f., corresponds with the 3rd March A.,D. 1232. The Sukritasamkirtana must therefore have been written before that time, and we must not put its authorship earlier than Vikrama-Samvat 1285. From a comparison of the list of Vastupala's buildings in the Kirtikaumudi it is further clear that the latter work was written in a little earlier than the Sukritsamkirtana. For in the Kirtikaumudi the buildings on Satrumjaya are mentioned, but not two temples on Girnar.
1 V. Char. VI. 535-536:
Jain Education International
श्री वीरधवलाधीशस्वान्तसन्तोषहेतवे । नरेन्द्रादेशतो मन्त्री सोमनाथमहेशितुः ।
2 See Ueber das Leben des Jaina-Monches, Hemachandra, S. 27 £.
सोमेश्वरं तदानर्च मन्त्री नानाविधार्चनैः ॥ ५३५ माणिक्यखचितां मुण्डमालामयमकारयत् ॥५३६
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org