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JAIN JOURNAL: VOL-XLII, NO.4 APRIL. 2008
training. This extraordinary brief survey shows that the Jains were very particular in imparting education to all kinds of people - be they sādhus or sādhvis, kings, princes, princesses, or even laymen'.
It will not be out of place here if I mention the contributions of Mahāmātya Vastupāla2, a Jaina minister and not a king, who lived in the history of Gujarat in the first half of the 13th century A.D. Vastupāla and his younger brother Tejapala were ministers of king Viradhavala of Dhavalakkha (modern Dholka in the Ahmedabad district), who was feudatory of king Bhimadeva II of Aṇahilabāḍ Patan. Vastupāla came from a Jaina family belonging to the Prāgvota (Porvād) commumity. Vastupāla, though not a king, but acted like a king, was a great patron of learning. In his regime as a minister, he promoted Jain literature to a great extent. Vastupala will remain great in the history of Gujarat for building the temples on Abu and Girnar. In fact, Vastupala helped the growth and development of all sorts of literary circle and the poets like Akalanka, Jayasimha sūri, Udayaprabha sūri, Jinadatta sūri, Jinabhadra, Nayacandra sūri and many others adorned the court of Vastupala.
In Vastupala's time all religious people used to foster their religious faiths without any enmity. Vastupala made no distinction between a Jaina and a non-Jaina devotees. Vastupala's tolerance of other faiths had become proverbial and this is testified by a verse found in the Purātana-prabandha-samgraha which shows how Vastupala was honoured by all sorts of religious people.3
bauddhair bauddho vaiṣṇavair vṣṇubhaktaḥ.
śaivaiḥ śaivo yogibhir yoga-rangaḥ/
jainais tāvaj jaina eveti kṛtvā sativadhāraḥ stuyate Vastupalaḥ //
"Vastupala, the depositor of strengh, is praised in this way by the Buddhists as Buddha, by the Vaisnavas as Visņu, by the Saivas
1. Ibid, p. xvii.
2. For this information. see B.J. Sandesara, Literary Circle of Mahāmātya Vastupāla, Bharatiya Vidyābhavana, Bombay. 1953, p. I ff.
3. See. S.R. Banerjee, Prolegomena to Prakritica et Jainica, The Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 2005, p. 153.
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