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Professor G. Bühler's critical study
have been his position, he had not become a rebel. The confirmation, which Arisimha's statements receive through the Lekhapañchaśikā, make it advisable, in the representation of this period of the history of Gujarat, to trust him more than the insinuations of Someśvara.
In concluding the discussion of this part of the Sukritasamkirtana, the mythological clothing must still be mentioned. In the treatise by Zachariae and myself on the Navasahasankacharita, p.48, I shewed that the court-poets often deemed it suitable, at crises in the history of their heroes, to make the gods actively interfere. When Arisimha then makes the spirit of Kumarapala descend from the fields of heaven. to move Bhima to the appointment of Lavaṇaprasāda as his Sarvesvara, it is not difficult to see what moved him to make use of this deus ex machina. Kumārapāla was well known as the adherent and protector of the Jaina faith. After his death a Brahman reaction took place under Ajayapala; and though Ajayapāla reigned only a short time, the Jaina sect seems not to have regained its former importance under his sons Mularāja and Bhima II. Only when Vastupāla and Tejaḥpāla became ministers in Dholka, did it again raise its head. Both belonged to one Jaina family and were filled with great enthusiasm for their religion. They spent a great part of their rich incomes on the erection of temples, asylums and benevolent institutions, so that at least the outward lustre of the Jainas was restored. Arisimha tried to unite the two prosperous periods of his sect by representing Kumārapāla as the intellectual originator of the second. In doing so, he has not refrained from putting words into king Bhima's mouth which he certainly never spoke, when he makes him call upon Vastupala and Tejaḥpäla (v. 61 above) to glorify the belief on the lord of the Jainas. According to all we know of Bhima, he favoured exclusively the Brahmans, and especially the Śaivas, to whom he made many presents. To excite vastupala's enthusiasm for his faith was, however, absolutely unnecessary.
VASTUPALA'S PILGRIMAGE TO SATRUMJAYA AND GIRNAR.
In the fourth Sarga Arisimha turns to the description of the Sukrita of pious works of Vastupala, by which he adorned the Jaina religion. First he mentions shortly that Viradhavala, with the help of his minister, soon 'conquered the ocean-girt earth' and put down all wrong and violence (vv. 1-7). Then he relates how in that happy time Tejaḥpāla came to his brother, praised his successes, and advised him to keep in mind the king's command and support the Jaina religion (vv. 8-13). Vastupala agreed and declared he would at once visit his spiritual director to hear his preaching and begin his works of piety according to his advice (vv. 14-26). On this occasion the succession of the monks of the Nagendra gachchha is gone over, which, since the time of Chandapa, had served the family as spiritual advisers. The names are precisely the same as those in the Prasasti of Tejaḥpāla's temple on Mount Abu1:- (1) Mahendrasūri (vv. 15-16); (2) Śantisūri (vv. 17-18); (3) (a) Anandasūri and (b) Amarasūri (who received from king Jayasimha the title of honour Vyaghrasisukau, the young tigers, ' in early youth they were able to withstand proud disputants resembling fiery elephants (vv. 19-21); (4) Haribhadrasuri ( (vv. 22-23); and (5), Vijayasena
because even
1 Kirtikaumudi App. A., pp 9-10.
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