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INTRODUCTION
121
iii) The medieval name for Wadhwan in Kathiawar was Vardhamānapura where Merutunga finished his Prabandhacintāmaņi in the year 1361 of the Vikrama era. Thus we have to see whether our Vardhamanapura was located in Bengal, Deccan or Kathiawar.
The validity of identification depends upon the fulfilment of certain conditions already mentioned by Jinasena and Harişeņa. Jinasena wrote his Harivamsa at Vardhamanapura when Indrāyudha was ruling in the North; Srivallabha, the son of Krsna-nrpa, in the South; Vatsarāja, the king of Ayanti, in the East; and in the West, Vira Jayavarăha over the Saura. mandala”. Harişeņa, just 148 years later, associates one Vinayādikapāla with Vardhamānapura. These conditions are not fulfilled, so far as the available material is concerned, by locating that town in Bengal or Deccan; but by accepting its identity with Wadhwan with reference to which the directions are to be understood, all the facts can be satisfactorily explained. Indrāyudha is identified with Indrarāja of Kanauja whose territory appears to have extended sufficiently westwards; Srīvallabha with Govinda II, the son of Krşņa I, of the Răstrakūta dynasty in the South; Vatsarāja, the king of the Gurjara-Pratihāra ruler of that name; and Vira Jayavarāha might have been some king ruling over Sauramandala or Saurāstra about whom we do not know anything from other sources. These directions and ruling kings are suitable only for Wadhwan with which alone, as we see below, can be associated a king Vinayādikapāla mentioned by Harişeņa. So this Kathakośa was composed near about Wadhwan in Kathiawar. It is presumed, of course, that Harişeņa should be associated with the same locality with which one of his predecessors was connected. I have not been able to get any additional information about Sriharişeņa and Bharatasena.
As to the year of composition, the author is quite explicit : he wrote this Kośa in Vikrama Sam. 989 or Saka 853, the year being Khara which is twentyfourth in enumeration. Referring to Pillai's Ephemeris“, I find that Khara would be twentyfourth according to the Northern cycle, but twenty fifth according to the Southern cycle where Sukla is additional after Vibhava, the second year. So Harişeņa, living near about Wadhwan, is calculating according to the Northern cycle. It appears that the book was finished sometime between 15th October 931 to 13th March 932 A. D.
1 Peterson's Reports IV, p. xcvi. 2 That is how Pt. Premiji and myself understand the verse, and I think, it is a consis
tent interpretation. Some have differently interpreted it: Bhandarkar: The Early History of the Deccan, Collected Works, III, pp. 89-90; Jinavijayaji: Jaina Sahitya Samsodhaka, III, 2, p. 188; Hiralalaji: Ibidem, II, 3, p. 147; Banerji:
Prehistoric, Ancient and Hindu India, p. 213. 3 Ray: The Dynastic History of Northern India, vol. I, pp. 279, 285, 287 etc. 4 A feudatory of the namo Dharanivarāha is mentioned in a record of A. D. 914
and associated with Vardhamanapura, as noted below. It is quite likely that
Jayavarāha was a predecessor of the same branch, 5 An Indian Ephemeris, vol. II, pp. 264-66. 6 The contemporary Räştrakūta king in the South was Govinda IV (A, D, 918-33). 16
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