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THE DYNASTIES OF SAURASTRA
Kaccha and Gujarata from the Ranna of Kaccha up to Rådhanapur is called the region of Vadiyåra. This almost tallies with the reference to the Navasara plates wherein the position of Cavadās is mentioned. The Jain chroniclers mostly attach them with their capital Pañcăsara.
Before going to deal with the history of this family we may say frankly that we have no contemporary epigraphs of the Cavadās to corroborate the facts derived from the Jain and other sources.
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All the literary sources on the Cavaḍās may be divided into three classes. They are: (i) the bardic version contained in the Ratnamālā (c. 1230 A.D.) of Krspakavi; (ii) the Brahmanical version contained in the Dharmāraṇya-māhātmya and (iii) the Jain version as found in the Prabandhacintamani and other prabandhas. All of them belong to the twelfth and later centuries while the family was ruling in the period two centuries earlier (c. 750-956 A.D.). Nevertheless, the tradition recorded by the chroniclers of Gujarata should not be discarded on this ground. It is an important family, because it forms a link between the early and later mediaeval periods of Gujarāta.
Early reference: The prabandha writers trace the starting-point of the rise of this Capotkața family to Vanaraja of Pañcasara who in his later life founded the city of Anahillapura. The earliest reference to this family is found in the Vadanagar Prasasti of Kumārapāla dated V.E. 1208 (A.D. 1152). This inscription confirms the fact that the Cavaḍās were ruling at Anhilavada in the tenth century, for it states that Mülarāja gained Anahilla. pura by overthrowing the Cavada. An Apabhramśa work Neminaka-cariu of Haribhadrasûri contains the earliest reference to Vanaraja in its colophon dated V.E. 1216 (c. 1160 A.D.). It denotes the way in which Vanarāja tried to make his city prosperous and strengthened his kingdom. It
states:
In the town of Gambhūya there was an elderly rich merchant by name Thakkura Ninnaya, whom Vanarāja honoured as a father (Janayabuddhia). Once he requested Ninnaya to reside in his own capital of Apahillapätaka. There Ninnaya built a temple of Rsabha, the first Tirthamṁkara of the Jainas. This Ninnaya's son named Lahara
Jain Education International
1 EI., I, p. 293.
Sanathumara-caritam: A section from Haribhadra's Neminaha-cariu edited by H. Jacoby, 152 आदा अवसर जग बुडी चाक्कडराय लालिओ वसिओ एवं च ठिए सामिय जे जाणसि तं करिजासु ।
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