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HISTORY OF JAINA MONACHISM
109 Coming to the reign of Arjunavarman, we find that he patronised great poets who have been claimed to be theirs by the Jainas. These three persons were Madana, Bilhana and Asādhara.
Regarding the first who was the royal preceptor (rājaguru) of Arjunavarman, RAY,292 on the authority of Jaina literary tradition, says that Madana was "taught by Aśādhara", who was the famous Digambara Jaina writer.
Bilhana was "another luminary in Arjunavarman's court, who is described as Mahāpandita in the royal grants. He served the Mālava prince as his Sandhivigrahika, and is referred to as Mahākavi in Jaina tradition". 293
More famous than these two was Ašādharā, the writer of Jinayajnakalpa, Trişastismộti, Sāgāradharmāmsta and Anagāradharmāmsta. Regarding him, RAY remarks that, "The third scholar was the Jaina Asādhara, whose father Salakhana (Sallaksaņa) is probably to be identified with the person of that name who appears with the title rājā as Mahāsandhivigrahika of Arjunavarman in one of his Bhopāl grants. The Jaina tradition records that Madana was a pupil of Asādhara".294
That even the successors of Arjuna, viz. Devapāla and Jaitugi were not unfavourable to Jainism can be proved from the fact that under the former the same Madana continued to be the royal priest, while under both these kings, Āsādhara could get leisure and patronage enough to complete all his four masterly works. The Modi stone-inscription 295 (V. S. 1314) of the reign of Jayavarman II found in a Jaina temple shows that Jainism was having a reputed and a respectable existence under the Paramāras in Central India and Rajputana.
We have up till now studied the fortunes of Jainism in North-India except Gujarat. As remarked elsewhere, Gujarat has been still a centre of Jainism, and hence it would be better for us to study the rise and growth of Jainism in this province separately.
Gujarat and Kathiawad :
The associations of Jainism and Gujarat have been, according to Jaina literary sources, a matter of remote antiquity. It is said that Neminātha, the 22nd Tirthankara renounced the world in Kathiāwād.296
292. Op. cit., II, p. 897. 293. Ibid., p. 899. 294. Ibid. 295. Ibid., II, p. 903. 296. See SANKALIA, 'The Great Renunciation of Neminātha', IHQ., June, 1940.
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