Jain Legend Vol 3

Author(s): Hastimal Maharaj, Shuganchand Jain, P S Surana
Publisher: Hastimal Maharaj Shugan C Jain P S Surana

Page 150

After the death of venerable guru Siddha Sena, crya Bappa Bha organized his congregation in Modher properly. Later on he handed over the administration of the Modha gaccha and congregation to Govinda and Nanna, and left for K nyakubja alongwith the chief advisers of King ma R ja. After a few days later, he arrived in K nyakubja. He continued delivering his beneficial sermons for many years there and benefited his followers by keeping them on the right
path.
In due course of time, King Dharma R ja sent a messenger to Kingma R ja alongwith the proposition, A great debater and scholar of Buddhism, Vardhana Kumjjara by name has come to Lak a vat . He is challenging scholars from all over for a scriptural debate with him. But no scriptural debater here is ready for accepting his challenge. Under such circumstances we should arrange a debate between him and crya Bappa Bha!
King ma R ja sent his approval for this proposition with the condition that the king whose debater looses shall hand over his empire to the winning king. After King Dharma agreed to these conditions, a scriptural debate between c rya Bappa Bha and Buddhist debater Vardhana Kumjjara was arranged on the border of both kingships. The scriptural debates continued indecisive for six months. In the end that Buddhist scholar called Bappa as the greatest debater and accepted his own defeat. The judges then declared Bappa Bha as winner and Vardhana Kumjjara as the total loser of the debate.
After the scriptural debate, King Dharma became anxious, as per the terms of the debate, to hand over his entire kingdom to Kingma R ja. But as per the request and suggestion of Bappa Bha , King ma R ja agreed to let King Dharma keep his kingdom. As a result of this historic effort, the traditional animosity between the two kingdoms ended. ma R ja and Dhram R ja were thus tied in the knot of friendship.
Bappa Bha then embraced very affectionately the Buddhist scholar Vardhana Kumjjara, taught him the deep meanings of Jain doctrine and made him accept the twelve vows of a householder. After accepting the right faith and practicing the twelve vows, that scholar paid respects to Bappa Bha and left for his home town.
150