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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
hold of Jainism and probably the hometown of this famous Jaina scholar. King Silāditya is mentioned by Yuan Chwang!21 as having ruled 60 years before his time. Now, the latest known date of Śilāditya's father and predecessor Dharasena II is GE 270 (AD 590) which shows that Yuan Chwang's '60' should be corrected as '50'.
There are other pieces of evidence to show that Jainism was in a flourishing state during the rule of the Maitraka-Valabhi kings. The Kuvalayamālāļ22 (Saka 700 = AD 778) distinctly refers to the fact that the grand-disciple of Devagupta, Yajñadatta, who evidently flourished around AD 600, adorned the Gurjaradeśa with Jaina temples. The language of the colophon of this text directly shows the tremendous popularity Jainism enjoyed in both Gujarat and Rajasthan in the sixth and seventh centuries ad. A number of Svetāmbara images/23 have recently been discovered from the ruins of Valabhi which have been assigned to the sixth century AD. It has also been suggested that Jinabhadra Vācanācārya mentioned in a sixth-century image-inscription from Akota (Gujarat) is to be identified with Jinabhadragani, the famous Jaina scholar, who was probably a native of Valabhi. The Vividhatirthakalpa 25 refers to the fact that there was a shrine dedicated to Candraprabha at Valabhi before its destruction by the Muslims in vs 845 (AD 787).126
The Digambara text, the Jaina Harivamsa, which was completed in ad 783 at Vardhamāna (Vadavan, Gujarat) gives us the very interesting piece of information 127 that the work was commenced in the temple of Pārsva which was built by king Nanna. There is no doubt that this Nanna is identifiable with the king of the same name mentioned as kațaccuri-kulaveśma-pradīpa in the Mankani Inscription, 128 who definitely ruled in the last quarter of the sixth century ad in this part of Gujarat. The Kațaccuris and the Kalacuris were basically Saivas, but the evidence of 'Digambara Jinasena' shows, that at least one of its earlier members, had a catholic outlook, so far as religion was concerned. It is probable that the temple of Pārsva built by Nanna was a Digambara shrine and in that case it should be looked upon as the earliest known Digambara temple in Gujarat. It should, however be remembered that, according to the Digambara tradition, the earliest canonical authors of this sect were connected with Girinagara. 129 It should also be pointed out that Digambara Divākara of Karņāța country, according to the Svetāmbaras, 130 was defeated and converted by Vệddhavādi at Bhrgukaccha.
Jinasena also refers to another Digambara temple dedicated to
