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JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA (AD 600–1000)
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Toramāņa, visited Bhinnamāla on pilgrimage. This certainly testifies that Bhinnamāla or Bhinmāl (Jalor district) was a great Jaina centre from the seventh century, if not earlier. Jinaprabha'' refers to this place as sacred to Mahāvīra. It was the capital of the Capa king Vyāghramukha in the AD 628 as we learn from Brahmagupta. 15 From a later inscription we learn that Mahāvīra himself visited this city.16 The kings of the Căpa dynasty, as we will later note, were great patrons of Jainism. It further appears from the Kuvalayamālā that some of the spiritual predecessors of Udyotanasūri were specially connected with Rajasthan. We must further remember that Jāvālipura (modern Jalor) was a very well-known Jaina centre and the native town of Udyotanasūri. That author further informs us that his work was completed in the Rsabhadeva temple of that city which also had a large number of Jaina shrines. The temple of Rşabha, according to Udyotanasūri," was built by one Ravibhadra. A number of Jaina saints, according to the author of the Kuvalayamālā, lived in this town. Another place, called Agāsavaņā, which was probably situated not far from Jalor, was also had a large number of Jaina temples. This place was connected, according to the author, with the activities of Vedasāra, who lived in the second half of the seventh century AD.
That Jainism flourished in Rajasthan during the days of Vatsarāja is further testified by an inscription, 18 discovered from Osia (Jodhpur district) and is dated vs 1013 (AD 956). We learn from this inscription that there was a temple dedicated to Mahāvira in the large city of Ukeśa, which existed during the days of Vatsarāja. The temple later fell into disrepair and was renovated by a merchant called Jindaka in vs 1013 (ap 956). It is clear from the inscription that the Mahāvīra temple here existed even before the days of Vatsarāja and was probably built a century or two before his time. It is interesting that Jinaprabha, the famous author of the Vividhatirthakalpa, mentions Upakeśa (Ukeśa of this inscription) as a place sacred to Lord Mahāvira.'' The well-known Upakeśa gaccha apparently derived its name from this place. 20
It was during the days of Vatsarāja in Saka 705 that another Jaina poet Jinasena II, the author of the Harivamsapurāņa,?' produced a work of considerable merit. There is however nothing to show that Vatsarāja himself took active part in the promotion of Jainism. He, however, appears to be a person of religious catholicity. His personal religion was Saivism, as we learn from one of the records of
