Comprehensive History of Jainism Volume II

Author(s): Aseem Kumar Chaterjee
Publisher: Firma KLM Pvt Ltd

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COMPRBHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
by these two remarkable persons in shaping the career of Kumāra pāla, cannot be overlooked. All the authorities including Prabhācandra, .8 Merutunga, 9 Jayasimha 100 and Jinamandana 101 assert that the rich Jain minister Udayana and the illustrious Hemacandra did everything to make Kumārapāla realise his supreme ambition. Hemacandra, himself, however, has not said, anything on his earlier intercourse with Kumārapāla, which is not unnatural. In any case, there is no sufficient reason to disbelieve the stories, according to which, Udayana, Hemacandra and a few other persons belonging to the Jain religion, 102 made Kumāra pāla, the king of Gujarat.
Kumārapāla, who was a great conqueror, is uniformly described as a devoted Saiya in the earlier inscriptions and colophons of Jain manuscripts. The inscription 10% of Bhāva Bịhaspati found at Veravai (Somnath) and dated 1169 A.D., describes Kumārapāla as the foremost of the Māheśvara kings. According to his earlier Chitorgarh stone inscription 101, dated 1150 A.D., Kumāra päla after worshipping Samiddleśvara (Śiva) donated a village near Citrakūța. The Nadol grant, dated 1156 A.D., directly confers on him the title Umāpativaralabdhaprasāda. 106 This particular title, showing Kumārapāla's actual religious belief, is repeated in a number of contemporary colophons106 of Jain manuscripts, beginning from V.S. 1208. In a manuscript of the Prthvicandracaritra107 we get a new title viz. Pārvatipriya varalabdhaprasada. His contemporary Hemacandra also in his Dvyāśrāya testifies to his zeal for the Šaiva religion. 108 Merutunga. a staunch Jain, also refers109 to his love for the Saiva religion and his 'building activities, including the restoration of the famous Siva temple of Somanātha.
But this great Šaiva monarch, in his later years, gradually came under the influence of the Jain religion. According to the account in the Prabhāvakacarita110 it was Vāgbhata, the son of Udayana, who first requested Kumārapāla to