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152
POLITICAL HISTORY OF N. INDIA FROM JAIN SOURCES
påla which shows that he was the son of Přthvīpāla, one of the elder brothers of Asaraja. The grant is dated in the reign of Mahārājādhrirāja Ratnapāla at Naddūla. This grant indicates that Asarāja had been ousted by his nephew Ratnapäla or he did not rule at all from Naddūla. The ousting seems likely to have occurred from the fact that we have no inscriptions of Ratnapāla dated earlier than V.E. 1176 (1119 A.D.). The sudden appearance of this record in between those dated records of Āsarāja must have some significance related to the fact of his ousting. The fact that Asarāja could not recover his lost throne, is proved by several Jain inscriptions of Ratnapāla's son Mahārājādhirāja Rāyapala. The acceptance of vassalage to Jayasimha Siddharāja by Asarāja may have some connection with the attempts to recover the throne through the help of Jayasimha but it seems that it too proved futile.
Rāyapāla: Nothing is known of Ratnapäla from the Jain sources. Ratnapāla was succeeded by his son Rāyapāla, though the Jain inscriptions do not mention even the name of Ratnapāla, their relationship, however, has been established by the Mandor inscription.
We have five dated Jain inscriptions of his reign bearing the dates from V.E. 1189 to 1202 (c. 1132-1145 A.D.), discovered from Nadlãi in the Jodhpur division. They are given here in chronological order.
The inscription (i) dated V.E. 1189 (c. 1132 A.D.) has been found incised on the lintel of two pillars in the. Sabhāmandapa of a Jain temple of Adinātha. It records as grant made by Rudrapāla and Amrapāla, sons of Mahārājādhirãja Rayapala conjunctly with their mother the queen Miņaladevi.? The inscription (ii) has been discovered on a pillar in the temple of Neminātha. It records a gift by the Guhila Thakura Räjadeva for the worship of Neminātha in the reign of M. Rāyapāla. It bears the date V.E. 1195 (c. 1138 A.D.). The inscription (iii) bears the date V.E. 1200 (1143 A.D.) in the reign of M. Rāyapāla. It was found in the Ādinātha temple. The epigraph (iv) is also dated in the same year as number (iii) and found engraved in the
1 DHNI., II, p. 2110. 2 EI., XI., p. 69, fn. I; also ibid., p. 307. 3 Ibid., pp. 34-36; Jain Lekha-sangraha, 1, p. 213. 4 Ibid., pp. 37-41; Jain Lekha-sangraha, p. 217. 5 P. C. Nahar, Jain Lekha-sangraha, Pt. I, p. 213.
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