________________
266
A COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
Jinasena, in his Harivañía, praised this work. In the available manuscripts of this work, however, the name of its author has not been disclosed, but Udyotanasūri has referred to Jatila,52 and later writers like Cámundarāya and Dhavala, the author of the Apabhramsa Harivamsa,53 have clearly mentioned him. The name Jatāsimhanandi is first found in the Cāmundarāyapurāņa. As A.N. Upadhye rightly conjectures, 54 Cāmuṇdarāya calls him by that name in order to distinguish him from earlier Simhanandis.55 Still later writers like Nayasena, Pārsvapandita, Janna, and others show their acquiantance with the Varāngacarita and its author Jaţāsimhanandi.
An epigraph from the holy Kopbal area in Raichur district of Karnataka, as noted in a previous chapter, 56 refers to this poet, who was evidently viewed as a great saint. It was probably inscribed a few centuries after the death of this savant. It, therefore, appears that Jatāsimhanandi became a celebrated figure in both north and south India after his demise.
The poem Varāngacarita runs to 31 chapters and describes the vicissitudes of the life of prince Varānga, the son of Dharmasena of the Bhoja family, who ruled at Uttamapura in the territory of Vinita (Ayodhyā). Some of the adventures of this prince remind us of those of Vasudeva, as described in the Svetāmbara work Vasudevahiņdī. However, written in easy, graceful Sanskrit, it is a much more readable work. The poet uniformly calls it dharmakatha, which according to Haribhadra's definition is full of religious topics.57 Varānga, the hero, is represented as possessing great religious virtues. The poet, as shown by Upadhye,58 was influenced by the views of Kundakunda, Umāsvāti, Samantabhadra, Siddhasena, and others. In chapters XXIV-XXV he attacks the views of the different schools in an amateurish way and it appears from this apparent immaturity that he was a comparatively young man when he wrote this poem.
It appears from the poem that Jainism enjoyed rare prosperity during Jațila's time.59 There are references to gorgeous Jaina temples with images of precious stones.60 Elsewhere, he has referred to the scenes of the Purāņas which were painted or carved on the walls of the temples.61 He also refers to the royal gifts of villages to the Jaina temples.62 A number of janapadas, including Anga, Vanga, Magadha, Kalinga, Suhma, Pundra, Kuru, Asmaka, Abhira, Avanti, Kosala, Matsya, Saurāṣtra, Vindhyapăla, Mahendra, Sauvīra, Saindhava, Kāśmira, Odra, Vaidarbha, Vaidiśā, Pañcāla, etc. are mentioned in one place in the poem.63 Elsewhere, Kāmboja, Bāhlika,
