Introduction to Jainsim

Author(s): Dewan Bahadur A B Lathe
Publisher: Jain Mitra Mandal

Page 81

Appendix
JAIN KINGS
The Jains are celebrated in ancient history and there were many Jain kings in those days. King Vajrakaran who ruled in Dashanagara (the present Mandessore) was a Jain and bowed before none but the jain Gods. It is said that there was a great fight between this Jain king and Sinhodar, the Sarvabhaum king of Ujjain, in consequence of the insult which thc Jain king offercd to the latter by refusing to offer saluation to him, in which Sinhoder was worsted. Shishupal, the ruler of Chanderi near Lalitsur, was a Jain. Gandharvasen and Shrivarma, the kings of Ujjain, arc described by some authors as being Jains but to mc, it is still a question. The Vallabh king Kumarpal was a grcat patron of Jainism. Maharaja Sampadi, the greatgrandson of the famous Baudh king Ashoka had embraced this faith. Ashoka himsclf is held by certain scholers to have been a Jain bcrore he was converted to Budhism. Wbilc writing about the Udaipur royal family, Col. Todd says in his Annals of Rajasthan that cven uptil now, the queen of Udaipur receives with great ceremony any Jain ascetic who miglit happen to visit the city. The origin of this custom was that the famous Rana of Udaipur Pratap Sinha was assisted by a great Jain, named Bhamasah, with an army of ten thousand men, when the king was in grcat stress in his stuggle with Akbar. The story of Pannadai is known to us all. It is said that it was a Jain, by name Asasah, who gayc refuge to that noble woman and the prince whom she had saved from Banveer at th: cost of her own son. At Mamdu or Mandapachal, a Jain served the Mohamedan king of the place as his Dewan. :