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A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
this vihāra and did all they could to beautify it. The eighth-century Jaina commentary, the Vyavahārabhāsya, 49 describes Bhrgukaccha as a place sacred to the Jainas. A recently discovered bronze image inscription from there refers to the Mülavasati of Bhrgukaccha. The inscription which is incised on the pedestal of an image of Pārśva has the date Saka 908 corresponding to AD 986. It refers to a work called Pārsvilla, the disciple of Sīlabhadragani, who belonged to the anvaya of Laksmanasūri of Nāgendrakula. It is apparent from the inscription that the temple called Mülavasati existed at Bhrgukaccha in the early medieval period.
I should then refer to the great Jaina centre of Girnar, also called Urjayanta. We have already noted that this hill was associated with the Jaina religion from a very early period. In the tenth century a great Jaina lay devotee called Ratna, hailing from Kashmir,5l donated a golden image of Neminātha to the Jaina samgha here. From very early times it was considered to be the sacred duty for every pious Jaina to undertake a trip to this holy hill, believed to be the site of nirvana of Neminātha. Like Girnar, the hill at Palitana in Gujarat, which is known as Satruñjaya, was considered sacred from a very early period, but became well-known only after the tenth century AD.
The Capas of Gujarat, who started their political career even before the downfall of the Valabhi kingdom, were devoted patrons of the Jaina religion. Nothing is known regarding the religious leaning of the earliest Cāpa king Vyāghramukha, whose name is disclosed by Brahmagupta and who ruled in Saka 550. According to the Jaina writers Vanarāja of Pañcāsara, who later founded the city of Anahillapura, was the earliest prince of this dynasty, but as we have already noted, one Vyāghramukha was a prince of this dynasty and ruled around aD 628 at Bhinnamāla.
Several Jaina writers have claimed that Vanarāja, like Mādhava of the Ganga dynasty, was helped by a Jaina saint in his attempt to carve out an independent kingdom. The Prabandhacintāmanı distinctly states that Vanarāja was helped in his childhood by a Jaina monk named Silaguņasūri. That Jaina saint was convinced from the very outset that the boy Vanarāja would in future become a jinaśāsanaprabhāvaka, i.e., ‘a propagator of the Jaina faith'. We are further told by the learned author of the Prabandhacintāmaại that the boy Vanarāja was brought up by ganini (head nun) Viramati The Jaina monk Sīlaguņasūri foresaw from the horoscope of the
