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Jona, 1928)
ANCIENT TOWNS AND CITIES IN GUJARAT AND KATHIAWAD
29
According to ono tradition Panohasara was the soat of the Chavotaka principality, according to another it was Dvipa or modern Diu. It is possible for both traditions to be truo, for there may be two branches of the clan settled at these two places. Novortheless, tho Chavotakas who eventually ostablished themselves at Anahilapura scom to us to bo previously ostablished at Panchasara. Tradition assorts that previous to their establishmont at Anahilapattana, tho Chavotakas wero ruling for 71 years; were the place of their principality at Dvipa, we shall have to suppose that they were ostab. lished there as early as 675 A.D. This appears doubtful if their capital were Dvipa : for Valabhi rule at this time extended much further to the west than Dvipa, as Junagad was under their suzerainty. It is thereforo doubtful whothor it was possible for a Chap branch to establish itself at Dvipa in 675 A.D., so far away from its original homo in Mount Abu and liommed in by a powerful empiro. Panohasara on tho other hand is much nearer to Bhinmal, where the main branch was ruling. Valabhi rule never extended so far to the north. It wil be shown subsequently that the Châps continued to hold Panchasara in spite of their defeat: the tradition, therefore, which says that Vanarâja was born at PafichAsara, would confirm the theory of Patch&sara rather than Dvipa being the capital. And finally the Pafchasara Parswanatha teinple built at Anahilapattana by Vanaraja 111 would remove all possible doubts in this matter; for the temple was so named because the image was brought from Pafcha. sara, the old seat of settlement.
Ratnamala says that Jayasekhara, the Châvotaka king of Panchasara, was attacked in 752 Vik. Sam. by a Chalukya king of Kanoj. This tradition is obviously incorrect, so far 49 the name and place of the invader are concerned [for during the seventh century Pala and not Chalukya kings were ruling at Kanoj]; but it seems pretty certain that Vanaraja's father was slain and that he was born a posthumous child in distressed ciroumstances. Legends assert that he was born in a forest and detected there by Silaguņasûri, a Jain priest who helped his mother to rear him.
The defeat of the Châp clan was not decisive; it seems to have soon re-established itself at Panch&sara ; otherwise we cannot explain how the grant of Pulukesin Janaśraya [dated Vik. Sam. 784) should refer to a Chåvad kingdom at Panch Asar. It appears that even after the foundation of Anahilapattana a branch of the family continued to rule there, of course, as foudatories. But with the fall of the main branch and the installation of the Solankis, the local branch also must have disappeared.
The town, even in the days of its highest glory, must have been but of moderato dimen. sions. It was only a feudatory capital and therefore could not have been a great city.
80. Prabhåsa. Prabhasa, better known as Somanathapattana or Verával, is perhaps one of the most ancient cities, not only in Gujarat, but in the whole of India. No purely historic evidence is available regarding its foundation, the earliest inscriptional reference to it being that of the Nasik Cave inscription No. 10 (which is repeated also in Karli Caves), wherein we are informed that Usabhadata, the son-in-law of Kshatrap Nahapana (whose date is now fixed at about 90 A.D.) had defrayed the marriage expenses of 8 Brahnianas at Prabhasa. 113 But Prabhasa as a place of pilgrimage was well known all over India much earlier than the first century A.D.; for, even if we decide to leave out of consideration the references to it in the Purânas 118 as of doubtful chronological value, there still remains the Mahabharata
111 Pbc., pp. 23-24. 111 प्रभासे पुण्यक्षेत्रामणेभ्योऽष्टभावाप्रमाने
118 20.9., Karma Purdns, Uttara Vibhaga, XXXV; Ayni Pundna, chap. 109, Ram., Kishkinda, XLIII-6, eto.
