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Dr. Charlotte Krause: Her Life & Literature
ressed to a 'sthāpanā-Jina', in this case the ancient Parśvanātha innage of Varakāṇa. The latter is even now a famous and much visited place of pilgrimage in Marwar, 3 m. from the B.B.C.I. Railway Station Rani", known as one of the five sacred places which form the 'Pañcatīrthi' of Marwar (i.e. Nadol, Nadulai, Ghaneray, Ranakpur and Varakāņa ). It possesses a huge temple of the 'BavanaJinālaya' type, dedicated to Pārsvanatha, whose image is believed to be very old and equipped with magical powers.1
100
Munisundara Sūri, whose name the poet have woven into the last stanza, was already mentioned before as the 51st pontiff of the Tapa Gaccha, and one of the poet's spiritual ancestors. The last word of the hymn, ‘Vimaladharma', if at all meant as a ‘Śleṣa', may be an allusion to a personality of that name to whom the poet felt bound in gratitude or admiration, perhaps some one under whom he studied. This is all the more likely since the same name occurs a second time in this hymn, in st. 19, though disguised in the form of 'Vimalavabodha'.
Contemporaneous literature does indeed know of a personality of the name of 'Vimaladharma'. An anonymous Gujarati poet refers to him as to his Guru in his 'Jīrāūlā Pārsvanatha Vinati', and his 'Mahāvīra Vinati', the latter composed in V.S. 1520, in the following words 101:
जय पंडितवर सिरि विमलधर्म, ते जाणइ आगम वेद मर्म । and :
राय राणा भूप अति घणाए, जिण रंजिय देस नयर तणाए । विमलधर्म पंडित तणइए, उपदेसिइ जीर्ण उधार करइए ।। १३ ।।
The colophon of an ancient manuscript of the 'Gautama Rāsa' too mentions the name of Vimaladharma in the following way102 : "पूज्याराध्य पंडित शिरोमणि पंडित विमलधर्म गणि शिष्य पंडित जिनशील गणि पंडित श्रीविमल गणि शिष्य पंडित माणिक्यविमल गणि".
This record is undated. It is however, supplemented by another, dated one, viz., the colophon of a manuscript of 'Śrī
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