________________
JAINA COMMUNITY
widow of the vanquished king of Gujarat, Jayasikhara, and that the child's name was Vanarāja. Šīlaguņasūri went to the neighbouring city and told the Jaina laymen of his discovery and of his belief that this child would one day be a king, and advised them to bring him up as a Jaina to the advantage of their faith. It all fell out as Silagunasūri had foretold, and when, grown to manhood after some years of outlawry, Vanaraja defeated his enemies and recovered the crown, he called Silagunasūri to his court, declared his intention of reigning as a Jaina king, and built the temple of Pañċasarā Pārasanatha which still stands in Pațaņa.
An Acārya named Siddhasena once had a dream in which Bappabhaṭṭīsūri. he saw a lion's cub on the roof of a temple; by this sign he knew that whoever should come to him during the following day would be capable of becoming a great sadhu. The next day a clever lad called Bappa appeared, and Siddhasena asked him if he would like to stay in the Apăsaro and study with him. The boy agreed, and the boy's father too was quite content, until he learnt that Siddhasena wished to turn his son into a sadhu. The father's chief objection was that, as the boy was an only son, his own name would die out, but this was overcome by adding the father's name to the son's and calling him Bappabhațți. Bappabhatti as a sadhu was most zealous for the faith. Once he saw a boy weeping in a Jaina temple, who told him that he and his mother (one of the wives of the king of Kanauj) had been driven out through the intrigues of a co-wife. Bappabhatti arranged for the boy's comfort and assured him that he would one day be king of Kanauj. When this happened, the young king called Bappabhațți to his court and assisted Jainism in every possible way by building temples and Apăsarā. Bappabhațți declined to stay long in the morally enervating atmosphere of a court, but during his second visit was enabled to save the king from the toils of a nautch girl. Visiting Bengal, Bappabhaṭṭī won over a reigning prince to the Jaina faith. Later he met a Buddhist preacher
G 2
83
