Sambodhi 2005 Vol 28

Author(s): Jitendra B Shah, K M Patel
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 50

44
M. A. DHAKY
SAMBODHI
Whatever its political status, the religious importance of Satyapura was assured by the existence, in the town, of the sanctuary of Jina Mahāvīra. As for its founding, Jinaprabha sūri narrates an anecdote as he may have heard in his days. As the Sūri states, when the Chief of Mandovara (Pkt. Maddoär, Mandoyara, present day Mandor) was assassinated by his relatives, his widowed consort escaped and took shelter in Brahmāna. The dowager queen delivered there a son, prophesied by the Jaina pontiff Jajjiga sūri to become a great man. Leaving aside the legendary elements of the account, it seems that this Prince, named Nāhad (Nāgabhatta), as noted in the Kalpa, when coming to age, recaptured his ancestral chiefdom of Mandovara. He, as Jinaprabha sūri further reports, at the instance of his preceptor (Jajjiga sūri), thereafter founded 24 Jina temples (indeed an inflated figure unless it is interpreted as a single caturvimsati-jinālaya') and a magnificent shrine to Mahāvīra at Satyapura. Jajjiga sūri consecrated the cult image of brass in this temple in V. N. S. 600/A. D. 173 or 22310, a date totally incompatible with the known historical facts for Nāgabhatta. For he plausibly has to be identified with the Gurjara-Pratīhāra potentate Nāgabhatta I, lord of Bhillamāla and Jābālipura (c. A. D. 725-758). Somewhat more reasonable seeming date is given by Dharmasāgara gani in the Tapāgaccha-pattāvalī-sūtra (A. D. 1596) on the basis probably of some older source. He places the date of founding in V. S. 647/A. D. 591", though this date, too, does not fall within the bracket of probability. However, if the date, in reality, was meant to be expressed in terms of the Saka instead of Vikrama Era12, it comes to A. D. 726, a date far more probable since it apparently falls within the early years of Nāgabhatta I.
The Astottari-tīrthamālā-stavana (c. late 13th cent. A. D.) of Mahendra sūri of Añcalagaccha13 incorporates an earlier gāthā which credits the founding of a Jaina temple called 'Yaksa-vasatī' inside the Kāñcanagiri fort of Jābālipura, to one Nāhadarāya!4 who again may be identified with Nāgabhatta I of the Imperial Pratīhāra lineage, whose capital is believed to be Jābālipura in those years. He also mentions a temple built by the king of Kanauj (Kanyakubja) in [V. N. S.] 1300 (A. D. 723) at Sāñcor15, a date which is closer to the one arrived at from Dharmasāgara.
The problem next to be solved is the identification of Jajjiga sūri. To my sensing, he possibly is the Yaksadatta gani, the fourth ancestor in the spiritual lineage of Udyotana sūri noted in the encomium of the Kuvalayamālā-kahā (A. D. 778). Combining this information with the information in the list of succession given by Jayasimha sūri, the disciple of Krsnarsi, in the Dharmopadeśamālā-vivarana (A. D. 859), the following hagiological sequence emerges :