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CRITICAL TIMES
235 Vakragriva, and tells us that Vajranandi was the author of Navastotra, “an elegant work embodying the variety of the teachings of all the Arhats.”
With the help of the above facts, we argue thus in order to ascertain the date when Vajranandi established the Drāvida sangha in Madura :
(a) The four sanghas were, according to the record dated A.D. 1432, divided after Akalanka's death. Since Akalanka is assigned to the latter part of the eighth century A.D., we have to suppose that the division into the four sanghas took place after the eighth century A.D.
(6) The four sanghas were the creation of Ardhabali who is placed after Guņabhadra. Now Guņabhadra was the disciple of Jinasena of the Sena gana ; and we know the date of both these scholars. From the praśasti of the work called Jayadhavala-țīkā begun by his guru Vīrasena, we know that Jinasena II completed it in Saka 760 (A.D. 838) during the reign of the Rāştrakūta king Amoghavarsa 1.2 Jinasena's disciple Gunabhadra wrote the Uttarapurāna which he completed in Saka 820 (A.D. 898).3 We may therefore, legitimately place Guņabhadra's successor Ardhabali in about A.D. 900. This would mean that the division of the original sangha into the four branches by Ardhabali took place in the last quarter of the ninth century or in the first quarter of the tenth century A.D.
(c) The fact of Devasena's mentioning the establishment of the Drāvida sangha suggests that that sangha was founded
1. E. C. II. 67, pp. 25-26.
2. Hiralal, Cat. of MSS., Intr. p. xxiii. This Jinasena is to be distinguished from Jinasena I, the author of Harivamśa. Ibid, p. xxii.
3. Hiralal, ibid, p. xxiv.
