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S. B. DEO
ņāțaka shows that the Digambaras were losing hold in Gujarat. This was further wiped out by their defeat in this debate, and this may be corroborated by the absence of Digambara epigraphs and the scanty number of their temples in Gujarat.
Hemacandra wrote a Prākrit grammar for the king. Inspite of this, Hemacandra could not completely win over the king to Jainism, and on one occasion Jayasimha went to the extent of forbidding the Jainas to raise up flags on their temples.307
Kumārapāla, the successor of Jayasimha elevated the position of Jainism still higher, and in his reign it became the state religion. Kumārapāla in his pre-Jaina days was a devotee of Siva and he had "a new stonetemple built in the place of the dilapidated wood-temple of Siva-Somanātha in Devapattana".308 It seems, however, possible that after the death of Jayasimha, "Kumārapāla's elevation to the throne was to some extent aided by the powerful Jaina party in Gujarat”,309 as throughout his life Jayasimha did not look with favour towards Kumārapāla.310 It may be, therefore, to compensate for the help the Jainas and particularly Hemacandra did to him, that Kumārapāla showed strong affinity towards Jainism.
The services rendered by Kumārapāla to Jainism were of a distinctive nature. Besides offering liberal royal patronage to Jaina temples311 and teachers, he proclaimed amārighosaņā throughout his kingdom and prohibited the killing of living beings on certain days.312 Besides these, there is epigraphical evidence to show that his feudatories also prohibited animal slaughter.313 SANKALIA, therefore, rightly remarks that, "to this day, due
307. CHITRAO, Madhyayugīna Caritrakośa, p. 834; For details about the relations between Hemacandra and Jayasimha, see Chapt. III of 'Life of Hemacandra' transl. from BUYLER'S German into English by Manilal PATEL
308. BUHLER, op. cit., Engl. Tran. pp. 29, 46; "A Saiva teacher, Devabodhi by name .... is supposed to have been a spiritual adviser to Kumārapāla even after his conversion"-Ibid., p. 46; For grants to Siva under his reign, see Bhav. Inscri. pp. 158-60; E.I., II, pp. 421-24; Ibid., XX, p. 47, No. 312; Bhav. Inscri. pp. 186-93; Ibid., pp. 184-85; E.I., XI, pp. 47-48.
309. RAY, Op. cit., Vol. ii, p. 976 310. Ibid.
311. He built temples at Palitānā, Girnar, Tāranga, etc., for a Jaina Vihāra with Pārsvanātha image at mod. Jalor, see E.I., XI, pp. 54-55.
312. Dravyāśraya, XV, 34.
313. Kiradu stone pillar-inscription of Mahāvāja Alhaņadeva (c. 1153 A.D.), Bhav. Inscr. pp. 172-73; Ratanpur stone inscription of Girijādevī, the Mahārājni of Punapākşadeva (Naddulă Cahamāna): Ibid., pp. 205-07.
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