Jainism in India

Author(s): Ganesh Lalwani
Publisher: Prakrit Bharti Academy

Page 96

JAINISM IN INDIA
71
In another verse of the Mahāviracarita, however, Hemacandra makes Mahavira prophesy thus : "In almost every village, he (Kumarapala) whose wealth is immeasurable, will adorn the earth with a temple of Jina." The statement of the Mahāvīracarita probably means that Kumarapala had a large number of small public edifices erected, which apparently were not important enough to be given separate names, and besides these he built the great temple at the capitalthe Kumaravihara-which Hemacandra describes in detail in the Dvyāšraya. Interpreted thus, the temples mentioned in the Mahāviracarita, may still be reconciled with those mentioned in the Dvyāśraya, if we accept that in the latter,--which was certainly the earlier work of the two,--Hemacandra wanted to mention only the most noteworthy of the temples. The Kumaravihara mentioned in the Jalor inscription may be one of the small edifices erected by Kumarapala all over his kingdom. For there is no doubt that Kumaravihara was a small temple, since the same inscription records subsequent extensions to the same temple by others.
Of the other chronicles, the Prabhāvakacarita, speaks, first of all, of the Kumaravihara at Anahilapataka, whose foundation it ascribes to the minister Vagbhata ; afterwards, it is stated the king ordered to be erected thirtytwo small temples (vihāras) and he also erected an image of Neminatha in the temple of his father Tihunapala (Tribhuvanapala) ; he then had a temple built on the Satrunjaya mountain ; and finally it is stated that Kumarapala adorned all deśasthānas, that is, the main places in each province, with Jaina caityas. It will be seen that except ascribing the foundation of the Kumaravihara to Vagbhata, the Prabhāvakacarita agrees mainly with the description left by Hemacandra, and number of temples it credits Kumarapala with having erected is quite reasonable and seems to have been in keeping with facts
The next chronicler, Merutunga, credits Kumarapala with the erection of 1440 temples distributed all over the country. The Mahāviracarita states that Kumarapala built temples in every village, from which it was not difficult for Merutunga to have arrived at the figure of 1440. However, it has to be remembered that Merutunga must have seen many of the temples erected by Kumarapala. Hence though his description may be exaggerated, and his theory of their origin rather mythical, still his evidence is of value for it shows that Kumarapala had built a large number of Jaina temples.
Of all these buildings which Kumarapala is said to have erected none has survived, and only on the Saturnjaya and the Girnar are