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SUPPLEMENT XI
THE JAIN HARIVAMSA
Asim Kumar Chatterjee, Centre of Advanced Study in AIHC, Calcutta University
Unlike most of the ancient and early mediaeval Indian works, the date of the Harivamsa of Jinasena II is known. The date which the poet himself has given in the colophon of his work (66. 52) is Saka 705 which corresponds to the year 783 of the Christian era. Jinasena II gives the names of some contemporary kings of India, viz. Indrayudha of Kanauj,* Śrīvallabha, son king Kṛṣṇa of the South, i.e. of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa dynasty, Vatsaräja called Avanti-bhūbhṛt and Varāha of the West. Historical existence of all these four kings is proved by contemporary epigraphic records. 2 From the next verse (66. 53), we learn that the composition of the poem was started at the town of Vardhamana (modern Vaḍvān) in the temple of Pārśvanātha, the penultimate Jain Tirthankara, built by king Nanna and completed at the town of Dostaţikā (identified with Dottādi between Vaḍvān and Girnar) in the temple of Santinatha, the 16th Jain Tirthankara. It should be pointed out, in this connexion, that at the same town of Vardhamāna, Harişena composed his Kathakośa in Śaka 853, corresponding to 925 A.D.** We propose to identify this Vardhamana with the town of the same name mentioned several
1 Since Jinasena has himself mentioned (1.40) an earlier Jinasena, who was a disciple of Virasena and afterwards composed his Ādipurāṇa we are compelled to call our author 'Jinasena II'. [There is some confusion in the tradition.-Ed.]
[Kanauj s not mentioned in the verse.-Ed.]
2 See The Age of Imperial Kanauj (ed. R. C. Majumdar), pp. 21ff., 101. [Varaha or Jayavarāha of the Saurya-mandala does not appear to be known from any inscription.-Ed.]
**[There is some inaccuracy.-Ed.]
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