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IOS
CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
639
C. 640
In the (Valabhi) year 320, Bhādrapada ba. 5 (639 A.D.), Maitraka king Dhruvasena II, Bālāditya, issued a grant from Valabhi, granting land situated in Málavaka Bhukti to Brāhmaṇa Agniśvāmin of Pārāśara gotra resident of Agastikā-agrahāra, an emigrant from Udumbara-gahvara, and to Brāhmaṇa Sangaravi of Kausika gotra, resident of Ayānaka-agrahāra, and an emigrant from Jambūsara. The grant was composed by Divirapati Skandabhata and executed by prince Kharagraha.—[ Nogāvā Plates : from Navagrāma (Nogāvā), ten miles north of Ratlam; EI; VIII, 188).
The period synchronising with the Gupta rule in Saurāșțra and North India, and the Vākāțakas in Central India and the Deccan, was marked by an important development in the history of Buddhism in the country. With the spread of Buddhism in foreign countries, China was getting more and more into touch with India, when a number of Chinese pilgrims visited India with a view to see the Mother Country of Buddhism, and to collect books of the religion which they had adopted as their own.
Fa-Hian, the first to visit India in 399 A.D. refers to the countries in Dakşiņāpatha only, in a general way. But the two travellers who followed him have left ample notes about their visit. Huien Tsang who came to India in the middle of the 7th century A.D., when the Cālukya king Pulakesin II was ruling over Mahārāştra, has left his account, known as 'SI-YU-Kı', since translated into English as ' Buddhist Records of the Western World' by S. Beal.
Buddhism in Valabhi owed much to the numerous donations by the Maitraka kings, majority of whom were Saivites, and to the liberality of the members of the Royal Family, and to the munificent gifts made by the feudatories and officers of the State under the Maitraka rulers. Many of these donations provided for the daily necessities of the monks in the monasteries such as Pinda-pata (alms), and Sayanāsana ( beds), Bheșajya (medicine), Civars ( clothes ) etc. for the worship of the Buddha images and current repairs to the monasteries. Some important variations are met with when the annointing of images [ Dhruvasena III's undated Plate, JBBRAS, (NS.), I, p. 357, performance of dance and music, (Silāditya l's grant), or the covering of the floor with grass (EI, XIII, p. 339; IA. IV, p. 174) is referred to in their copperplate grants. One grant provides for the purchase of religious books for a monastery.- (Guhasena's grant of G.E. 240; IA., VII, p. 67). In some others the fortifications (Silāditya's grant of G.E. 290; IA., IX, p. 237), and the well-laid gardens around the Vihāras are mentioned.
The Buddhist element in the population of Valabhi is further indicated by references to fields in the grants. Two Kşetras-Samgha Kşetra and Sthaviraka Brahmadeya Kşetras—which were evidently Buddhistic are mentioned in Dhruvasena II's grant of 313 G.E. Another field belonging to a Sthaviraka (teacher) by name Bavya is mentioned in Dharasena IV's grant of 326 G.E.
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