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115
Vämanasthali, to surrender, as they happened to be the brothers of his queen Jaya taladevi, and then killed them. †
Although the story given here is not found elsewhere, V ar ddhamanasuri is definitely a historical figure in view of the final statement of this prabandha viz. that he composed the Väsupujyacaritra. The Prasasti at the close of the Vasupujyacarita states that Acarya Varddhamanasüri of the Nagendragaccha instructed Dandanayaka Ahlada na of the Gallakakula and inspired him to get repaired the Vasupujyasvamin temple of the Nagendragaccha situated at Patana and that at the request of the same Dandanayaka he composed the Vasupujyacarita of the extent of 4 Sargas and 5494 Granthas in V. S. 1299 (= 1243 A.D.) while staying at the Upasraya adjoining the same temple at Patana.
At the commencement of the prabandha he is called Kapolaśrivarddhamanasuriḥ which evidently would mean that the pontiff belonged to the Kapola community. This reference naturally hints at the fact that the Kapola community of the Vaniks is at least as old as the first half of the thirteenth century A.D. The closing formula of the p:abandha, however, reads: Gālāśrīvarddhamanasuriprabandhaḥ'. The prefix galā here appears to denote the name of the pontiff's native place viz. mod. Gālā, a village in Saurastra, situated in the former Dhrangadhra state.
The statement that while delivering sermons he used to keep nine vessels on his right side for holding nectar in the form of the nine sentiments [rasa juice'] (produced from his speech) and a knife on his left in order to incise the tongue if incorrect language or pronunciation or even repetition took place may be regarded as poetic exaggeration. All the same it hints at such of his qualities as sweetness and accuracy of speech.
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The incident of the contest between the dialectician Dev amahananda hailing from the Gauda country and Varddhamana - suri's two disciples Và ghalau and Singhalau that is stated here to have taken place at Sripattana or Devapattana, ie., med. Prabhasa Patana, in Saurastra, and lasted for eighteen days, is also not traced in any of the Prabandha-works referred to by the present editor. All the same it is not advisible to reject all such accounts of the prabandhas as imaginary. Though at present we have no evidence for their historicity, it is not at all improbable that in future when many more works are allowed to see the light of the day and much more information is
† Vide PK, pp. 103-104; also Vastupalacarita of Jinaharsa, Ch. II,
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