________________
ioo
THE JAINA GAZETTE crown after him. But Siddharaja hated them for their social apostacy and to defeat their claim nominated a Paramara prince, Chahadat who hailed from Malava as his son and successor.
To make himself sure of the success of his plan and to safeguard the interests of his adopled son, he had Tribhuvanapala assassinated. The next intended victim was Kumarapala. Before he could lay his hand upon him, the secret was out and Kuinarapala. as advised by his brother-in-law Kanhad left his family at Dethali and himself went into exile. He roamed about under disguise visiting various places. Once, he paid a secret visit to the capital to know what was going in the Court but he was recognised and followed by the men of Siddharaja. But with the aid of a friendly potter named Alinga, he managed to evade the search-party and made good his escape. Thence he made his way to Cambay where he came across Hemachandra who is said to have foretold his future greatness but he did not take it seriously. While staying at Ujjain, news came to him that Siddharaja was dead. He at once hastened to Anhil wad. The state nobles and ministers met in a council and after some discussion, decided to offer the crown to Kumarapala and not to Chahada who was a stranger. After an interregnum of thirty days during which period, the sandals of the late emperor adorned the vacant throne, Kumarapala was installed as emperor of Anhilwad.
The first act of Kumarapala on coming to throne was to recognise the services, in an appropriate manner, of all those who had befriended him in the days when he was a homeless wanderer, Alinga was made the chief member of the council which was formed to carry on the administration of the state. Bahada was appointed as prime minister. Bhopala-devi was elevated to the dignity of the chief queen. Devasri and others were given handsome rewards.
1. Merutunga has erroneously confounded this Chahada who was a Paramara Rajput with his namesake who was one of the four sons of Udaya. The error has been repeated also in the learned works of oriental scholan Modern rosearch owes a great debt to Muni Jina-vijaya-ji for his baving pointed out the mistake in his learned work "The Prachina Jaina Shilalekha "
Pt, u, Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
