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INTRODUCTION
103
Today the town Jalor, at the foot of the hill Sovangiri or Songiri,1 is gradually extending towards the Railway Station; it has quite a modern look on the outskirts of the old part of the town adjacent to the hill-fort. I am given to understand that in the population of the town there are more than two thousand Jainas, mostly of the Murtipujaka Svetambara section: some of the Jaina families have trade contacts with big towns like Bombay, Bangalore etc. Besides the Saiva temple, Masjid etc., there are, in the town today, a dozen Jaina temples: one on the Station Road still under construction is an eloquent proof of the traditional religious zeal of this ancient locality. On the hill, within the fort, there are four Jaina temples: i) Of Mahāvīra, known as Candanavihara, renovated some time earlier than thirteenth century A.D., perhaps at the time when Kumarapala constructed the Kumāravihara in this fort. This is considered to be the same as the Yakṣavasatiprāsāda. ii) Of Santinatha, popularly called Aṣṭāpadāvatāra. The garbha-gṛha etc. are older than thirteenth century A.D. iii) Of Parśvanatha, rebuilt on the remains of the Kumāravihara constructed by Kumārapāla in 1164 A.D. iv) Of Adinatha, which is a place for the annual festival of the locality. None of these can be definitely proposed for identification with the temple of Rṣabha, which was got built by Virabhadra and referred to in the Kuvalayamālā.
According to Merutunga's Vicarasrent, it was during the reign of king Nāhaḍa,2 the temple of Mahāvīra, called Yakṣavasati was built on the Suvarṇagiri, i.e., the hill-fort of Jalor. As the story goes, this Suvarnagiri was inhabited by the richest section of the society: those who were worth less than a crore even by one lakh had no accommodation there. The gathā in this respect runs thus:
After this traditional information about Nahada, the history of Jalor is in dark till Uddyotana's time. According to TOD's information the ruler lent his help to Rāṇā Khomāna when Chitor was beseiged by foreign armies some time between
नवनवइ - लक्ख - धणवइ अलद्धवासे सुवण्ण - गिरि - सिहरे । नाहड निव कारवियं थुणि वीरं जक्ख वसईए ॥ ८० ॥
1 Dr. S. N. VYAS, in his Hindi monograph Universal Poet Kalidasa: A Study (Gwalior 1957), pp. 71 ff. puts forth his view that Alaka, the Yakṣabhumi, referred to by Kalidasa in the Meghaduta, is this Suvarnagiri with its Yakṣavasati and its inhabitants each possessing not less than a crore. He has shown some common points in the description of Kalidasa and of Jalor and its premises. The following is the description of the Jalor fort from the Rajaputana Gazetteers, Vol. III-A, pp. 189-90, The Western Rajputana States Residency and the Bikaner Agency, Allahabad 1909: On a hill to the south and entirely commanding the town stands the fort, one of the most famous in Rajaputana. Built early in the Christian era by the Parmar Rajputs, its walls, composed of huge masses of cut stone remain even now in a perfect state of preservation, although the place has been many times besieged. The fort is about 800 by 400 yards in extent, and accessible only by an ascent of three miles up a steep and slippery stone roadway, passing three distinct lines of defence, all of considerable strength; it is amply supplied with good drinking water from a couple of tanks within the walls, and possesses several handsome palaces and temples, as well as the tomb of Malik Shah, a noted Muhammadan saint.'
A.D.
2 Nahaḍa stands for Nagabhata, and he is to be put in the first half of the 8th century See Rajasthan through the Ages, pp. 122 etc., Bikaner 1966,
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