________________
590
C. 590-615
595
595
C. 595
595-96
155
According to the Chinese sources, Dharmagupta, a scholar from Lata (Gujarat), is said to have left his native place, and travelling through Central India, reached the capital of China in 590 A.D.-(Cf. B.E.F.E.O., II pp. 439-40, cited by Nilakantha Sastri, Foreign Notices of South India, p. 14).
MAITRAKA-GURJARA PERIOD
Dhanesvarasuri, the author of the famous Satrunjaya Mahatmya, describes himself in this work as a tutor of King Siladitya I of Valabhipura. Here, we are told, he euchred the colours of the Buddhists who were puffed up with pride on account of their knowledge; and the ground he took for defeating them was. 'Syad-vāda ie. May Be or the Science of Logic.
Derabhata, the son of Siladitya I, seems to have inherited from his father the Vindhya territory about the same time when the latter ascended the throne at Valabhi.
The Maitraka Mahārāja Dharasena II issued a grant of land situated at Hariyaṇaka. The grant was dedicated to a Buddhist vihara at Valabhi. Samanta Siladitya officiated as the Dutaka of the royal edict and Skandabhața composed the grant.-[ Vala Plates, JBBRAS. (NS) I, 22 1.]
King Siladitya I alias Dharmaditya', son and successor of Dharasena II, (c. 590-615 A.D.) acceded to the throne of Valabhi in circa 595 A.D. He devoted himself to the practice of Dharma and issued liberal grants of land to Brahmanas, temples and vihāras. His sway extended over Mälava (Malwa ).
During his visit to Mälava in 641, Hiuen Tsang got information about the righteous career of this past king, who convoked a 'Mokṣa Parisad' every year, and gave liberal donations to mendicants assembled on that occasion.
King Sila alias Dharmaraja mentioned in the Aryamanjāśrimālakalpa is identified with this king. He had erected a Buddhist vihara by the side of his palace, installed the images of the Seven Buddhas therein, and exhausted the skill of the artisans in its decoration.
The Mankani ( Sankheḍā Taluka) Copper-Plate' grant, supplemented with the other half in Baroda Museum, purports to record the gift of a field of rice (f) in the north of the village of Mañkanika, made to the learned Brahmana Jyesthavarma of the Jatukarna gotra, a student of the Vajasneya Sakha of the Sukla Yajurveda, to enable him to perform his 4s for the meritorious gratification of his parents and of himself.
The grant was made by Taralasvami, probably a local ruler, son of Sri Mahārāja Nanna and Daddha, of the Kalacuris, who established sway in the I.ăța-desa under Sankaragana in the 6th century after Christ. Taralasvāmi was the sister's husband (Bhavaka ) of the illustrious Sürya, and he held local sway. The lethaka of the grant in Cedi Samvat 346 ( 595-6 A.D.) was
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