Some Early Jaina Temples in Western India

Author(s): M A Dhaky
Publisher: Z_Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_Mahotsav_Granth_Part_1_012002.pdf and Mahavir_Jain_Vidyalay_Suvarna_

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292 SHRI MAHAVIRA JAINA VIDYALAYA GOLDEN JUBILEE VOLUME
hot hours, were transferred, we are told by later Jaina prabandhas, to safer sanctuaries; to Devapattana (Prabhas Patan), to Vardhamana (Wadhwan), and to Bhillamāla (Bhinmal).
Jainism did not supplant Buddhism molecule by molecule, piece by piece, place by place; in expanse it covered many more sites (some of which later on grew to be its potential centres) where Buddhism never held sway, it would seem, at any date, early or late. Some of the well-known towns and cities of the mediaeval period were not even founded when Buddhism had its heyday in Gujarat. Aņhilapäṭaka (Patan) which came to be established in 746 (according to Jaina. tradition) by Vanarāja Capotkața, a little township, an humble capital to a principality, was to become a focal centre, a proud and prosperous metropolis of an empire in the twelfth century. There, Prince Vanarāja founded a temple to Pārsvanatha of Pancasar. An immigrant from Rajasthan, Prāgvāța Ninnaya, the ancestor of Governor Vimala of Dilwara fame, built a temple to Jina Rsabha at the newly founded capital for the benefit of Vidyadhara Kula of the Svetämbara Church. At the same moment, at Thārāpadra (Tharad) in North-west Gujarat, Vaţesarasuri of Candra Kula established Thārāpadra Gaccha: at the centre of its emanation a temple to Jina Rşabha was in existence.
Digambara Jainism, too, is known to be followed in a few centres in Gujarat area in this age. At Vardhamana it had a temple sacred to Pārsvanatha (Nannarāja Vasati) where Jinasena wrote his Harivansa Purana in 783. This work was adored in the temple of Santinätha at Dostaţikā as mentioned in the same work. Yet another work composed at Vardhamana, now in 931-32, was the Brhatkathakośa of Harisena." Harivamsa Purana refers to Simhavahana Sāsanadevi Ambika (atop Mt. Girnar) whose origin is associated with Koṭṭināri (Kodinar) on the west coast of Saurashtra. By the end of eighth century, the sectaries
6 Prabandhacintamani (1305) of Merutunga, sarga 50; Satyapuratirthakalpa (1311) inside Vividhatirthakalpa of Jinaprabha; and Ms. P (1472) in Purătana Prabandha Samgraha edited by Muni Jinavijaya all published in Singhi series, Bombay.
7 SANDESARA, B. J., Wadhavan-mam racâyelá be Digambara Jaina grantho (Gujarati), Journal of the Saurashtra Research Society' Vol. I, No. 2, Sept. 1957. Both Jinasena and Harisena belonged to the Punnata Samgha of the Digambara Sect.
7a SHAH, U. P., Iconography of the Jaina Goddess Ambika, Journal of the University of Bombay', Vol. IX, pt. 2, Sept. 1940.