Kavyanushasana Part 2

Author(s): Hemchandracharya, Rasiklal C Parikh, Ramchandra B Athvale
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 46

latroduction
From the end of the Yadava supremacy in Saurashtra to the rise of the Mauryan empire, there is a blank in our knowledge of the history of Gujarát. Possibly Yaudheyas * Abhiras, and such ather tribes were contending for supremacy. Yādavas were also there. But we do not know of any definite event unless we accept the historicity of Prince Vijaya embarking from the coast of Lāta and conquering the island afterwards known as Simhaladvspa and establishing an Aryan kingdom there. This, as we have seen before, coincides with the death of Gautama Buddha. This takes us to the 5th century B. C..
: 5. . The earliest monuments of history that we have as yet discovered in Gujarāt are those on a rock in the mountains of Girināra. This conic granite about twelve feet high from the ground and having a circumference of about 75 feet in its lower part is situated on a narrow path leading to a valley, a mile to the east of the city of Junāgadha in Kathiawar. It has three documents of the first class historical importance inscribed on it. As a monument of history its importance can scarcely be exaggerated. In fact it is unique for the history of India. It bears side by side inscriptions of the three kings - greatest in the history of India: Asoka, Rudradāman and Skandagupta. This is the only monument which in the inscription of Rudradāman contains, according to Vincent Smith,
the only known epigraphic record containing the names of Chandragupta and Asoka Maurya' (E. H. I. p. 133 ).
* For information regarding the coins of Yaudheyas, their democratic constitution, etc. see the B. G. pp, 19 and 36, 37.