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Correlation of Jaina Inscriptions with Sthavirāvalis
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and Arya Samudra is his grandpupil Arya Sāgara śramana of the same Kālaka-kathās20. Next, in vs. 28, Ārya Mangu is paid respects in the following words :
Bhanagam karagam jharagam pabhavagam nāņa-damsanagunānam vandāmi Ajja-Mangum suyasāgarapāragam dhiram ||28||
The above-cited gāthā shows how great a sthavira the Arya Mangu was. He was a pontiff of great virtues of jñāna and darśana, a great personality who could impress upon others (and who had superhuman powers, the pabhāvaga=prabhāvaka one who had crossed the ocean of canonical learning (śrutasāgara-pāraga]).
These inscriptions show that Arya Mangu belonged to Vera or Vaira, i.e. Vajra or Vajrī sākhā. Origin of this sākhā, according to the Sthavirāvali of the Paryusanā-kalpa (according to its vistrta-vācanā), is as under :
"From the two sthaviras of the Vyāghrāpatya line, Susthita (alias Kotika) and Supratibuddha (alias Kākandaka) branched out the gana named Kotika which had four sākhās and four kulas. What were the sākhās? They were : First, Uccanāgarī, and then Vidyādharī, Vajrī, Madhyamikā-such were the four sākhās of the gana named Kotika.” Arya Mangu or Arya Māghahasti belonged to this Vajri sākhā. The two inscriptions discussed in the foregoing refer to this Vajri or Verā or Vairā sākhā derived from Arya Vajra who was a pupil of sthavira Arya Sīhagiri (Simhagiri), jātismara of the Kausika gotra, as the Sthaviravalī tells us in sū.11. This sthavira Ārya Sīhagiri and sthavira Arya Sānti-sainika (= śāntisena ?) were the two disciples of Sthavira Āryadatta who was a disciple of sthavira Arya Indradatta who himself was a disciple of sthavira Arya Supratibuddha alias Kākandaka. Both Susthita (alias Kauţika) and Supratibuddha (alias Kākandika) were disciples of Ārya Suhasti. We know from other sources that Sthavira Arya Suhasti was a contemporary of the Mauryan ruler Samprati. Suhasti is credited to have brought Samprati to the Nirgrantha fold.
In an inscription published by K. D. Bajpai21 and again discussed by M.A. Dhaky22 we find reference to Kautika-gana, śāntinika-kula, an the Vajrī sākhá in the inscription which is dated in the year 17 of Kaniska, which proves that both Ārya Sāntinika, the contemporary of Arya Sīhagiri and Arya Vajra, the pupil of Sīhagiri lived before the year 17 of Kaniska, since Vajrī sākhă is said to have originated from Arya Vajra. Since Manguhasti
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