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90
yaditya ruled at Ujjayini from 1060 A.D. to 1087 A.D. The story in our text starts with the demise of this Udayaditya.
Fifthly, the last prabandha relates the story of Sri Varddha mäna. sūri (pp. 30-31), who, in the end, is reported to have composed the Vasupujyacaritra. This last statement is very important from the view-point of fixing the date of composition of our text. Because it is stated in the Praśasti at the close of the Vasupujyacarita* that it was composed by Vardhamāna sūri at the instance of his pupil Ahladana in V, S. 1299= 1243 A.D.:
tato'sau vidhi vidhyarka
sankhye vikramavatsare 1 ācāryas-caritam cakre
vāsupujyavibhor-idam 11 29 11 (p. 471).
According to the Nāg, ndragaccha-fattāvali also Acārya Vardhamani. sūri, who is rumbered nine there, instructed Dandanayaka Ahlādana of the Gallakukula and inspired him to get repaired the Vāsu pūjya - swāmin temple of the Māgendrugaccha at Pātana and at the request of the same Dandınāyaka he composed the Vásupūjyacarita of the extent of four Surgas and 54-4 granthas at Påtana in V. S. 1299 (= 1243 A.D.), while residing in the Upāśraya adjoining to the same temple. †
As our author makes a definite statement that the pontiff composed the Vasupujyacarilia (31.3), he must, beyond doubt, have composed his LPS after that incident, i.e., after 1243 A.D.
On the evidence of the above facts we can safely conclude that the Laghu-prabandha sangraha was composed some-time between 1243 A.D. and 1409 A.D.
Now we have already seen in the Chapter on Relation With Other Prabandha-Works that in almost all the cases where different versions of the prabandhas are available the version of the LPS is definitely earlier than all the rest including those found in the Prabandhacintamani of Merutunga and the Prabandhak»śa of Rāja Śrkhara and that in no case the LPS
* Edited by Dr. Ambrogio Ballini of Rome and published by Sri Jaina Dharma Prasāraka Sabha, Bhà va nagara in 1910 A.D.
1 Jaina Parampara-no' Itihāsa (in Gujarati), part II, by Muni Darśa na vija y aji, Muni Jña navija yaji and Muni N yāya. vija yaji, Ahmedabad, 1950 A.D., pp. 5, 676.
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