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latroduction
CVII
to the mysterious prowess of the boy who would become a Jainaşāsanaprabhāvka i. e. a propagator of Jain faith, he took him from his mother who was provided with a living. He was entrusted to the care of Ganini (i. e. the head-nun ) Vīramatī. He was given the name of Vanarāja. When he was eight years old he was asked to look after the holy things so that they might not be damaged by rats. He did this by killing them with arrows. Silaguņasūri foresaw from his horoscope that he was to become a great king and so he was returned to his mother. Vanarāja lived with his maternal uncle who was leading the life of an outlaw against the ruling power.
The account of the Modhera Brāhmaṇas who claim to have given shelter to the queen and brought up her boy, gives her name as Chhattā or Akshatā.*
From all these accounts we find that Vanarāja was connected with Panchāsara in the earlier part of his life. Now let us see if we can discover some relation between the Chavadas of Anahillapura and those of Bhinnamāla through Panchăsara. According to the P. C. a king named Bhūyarāja was reigning in Kalyāṇakataka which was the capital of Kānyakubja country, which contained thirty-six lacs of villages (p. 11). According to the same authority Gujrat was a territory of Kānyakubja country at the time of Vanaraja's birth. This is, however, an anachronism. For, we know that the
* The Prabhāvaka-charita gives the name of the monk as Devachandra. This is possible, for, Devachandra was a disciple of Silaguņasūri. See Pr. Ch.p. 265, and the introduction of Muni Kalyanvijayaji to the Gujarati translation of the same, p. 87.
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