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THE DYNASTIES OF SAURASTRA
207
As regards the early limit of the reign of the Cāvadās we have to consider the date of Vanarāja. The Prabandha-cintāmani does not mention the date of birth of Vanarāja but it records V.E. 862 (805 A.D.) as the date of his death when he was 109 years and some months old. If we subtract 109 from 862 we get V.E. 753 (A.D. 697) is the date of birth of Vanarāja. According to the same authority he was appointed at the age of 50 in the year V.E. 802 (746 A.D.) when he founded the city of Anahillapura. In the foregoing pages we have discussed that by the year 740 A.D. (Navasāri plates) the Cāvadās of Pañcāsara were attacked by the Arabs. Vanarāja at that time may have been 44 years old for he was 50 years of age in the year 746 A.D. The Prabandha-cintamani states that when Vanarāja was a child in the cradle, his mother was very poor, and she collected the fuel. The Ratnamālē and Dharmāranya inform us that the king of Pañcāsara was killed by the king of Kanauj (suggested by me as Nāgabhata I) and then was born Vanarāja. If the long age of 109 years of Vanarāja be accepted, this would mean that the misfortune of the family might have befallen in the year of his birth i.e., V.E. 752 (698 A.D.). This period is obviously quite earlier than that of the Navasāri plates which proves the existence of Cāvadā at Pañcāsara in 739 A.D., and then that of Nāgabhața I (725-756 A.D.). In the above light it seems that there is some mistake in recording the rather unusually long age of 109 years of Vanarāja.
Moreover, the coronation year V.E. 802 (746 A.D.) of Vanarāja also seems rather improbable. When we reconcile the statement of the Prabandhacintāniani with the Navasāri plates and Nāgabhata I, the year 746 A.D. (V.E. 802) seems more probably the date of birth of Vanarāja. The Vicāraśreni gives us V.E. 821 (A.D. 764) as the foundation date of Anahillapur by Vanarāja.” By that time he must have been nineteen years old which seems to me as the coronation date.
The foundation of Anahilavāda by Vanarāja is a matter of controversy. One Jain authority Jinaprabha in the Vividha-tīrtha-kalpa states that the city was built on the site of a town known as Lakharāma, which is stated to have been founded in V.E. 502 (446 A.D.). It seems, however,
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TRIHA
1 SJGM., I, pp. 13-14: राज्याभिषेकः।
? JSS., II, No. 3, p. 9.
3 SJGM., X, p. 51: अइक्कंतेसु संवुत्तो।
TARTA al 1991 a 13 dayaTugay aftan (402)
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