Jain Kings

By Jain Mittra Mandal

The Jains are celebrated in ancient history and there were many Jain kings in those days. King Vajrakaran who ruled in Dashanagara (the present Mandessore) was a Jain and bowed before none but the jain Gods. It is said that there was a great flight between this Jain king and Sinhodar, the Sarvabhaum king of Ujjain, in consequence of the insult which the Jain king offered to the latter by refusing to offer saluation to him, in which Sinhoder was worsted. Shishupal, the ruler of Chanderi near Lalitsur, was a Jain. Gandharvasen and Shrivarma, the kings of Ujjain, are described by some authors as being Jains but to me, it is still a question.

The Vallabh king Kumarpal was a great patron of Jainism. Maharaja Sampadi, the greatgrandson of the famous Baudh king Ashoka had embraced this faith. Ashoka himself is held by certain scholers to have been a Jain before he was converted to Budhism. While writing about the Udaipur royal family, Col. Todd says in his Annals of Rajasthan that even uptil now, the queen of Udaipur receives with great ceremony any Jain ascetic who might happen to visit the city. The origin of this custom was that the famous Rana of Udaipur Pratap Sinha was assisted by a great Jain, named Bhamasah, with an army of ten thousand men, when the king was in great stress in his stuggle with Akbar. The story of Pannadai is known to us all. It is said that it was a Jain, by name Asasah, who gave refuge to that noble woman and the prince whom she had saved from Banveer at the cost of her own son. At Mamdu or Mandapachal, a Jain served the Mohamedan king of the place as his Dewan.

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