The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5.144

c5.144

The princes of Valabhī started as feudatories of the Gupta empire, Dharasena IV being the first of their line to become a supreme sovereign. From the time of Dharasena II the Valabhī rule embraced continental Gujarāt as far as the Mahī, and later it extended at least to the Narmadā, Bharoch being temporarily wrested from the Gurjaras by Dharasena IV. Some of the Valabhī princes, though Brahmanists, patronized Buddhism. Dhruvasena I granted a village to a monastery founded by his sister's daughter Duḍḍā, and his nephew Guhasena four villages to the same monastery. Guhasena's mention of the eighteen schools represented in the monastery refers to the Hīnayāna sect of Buddhism, and thus confirms Hiuen Tsang's statement as to the Hīnayāna doctrines being chiefly studied in the convents at Valabhī. The latest known prince of the Valabhī line is Śīlāditya VI, G. Saṃ. 447. The final date of the dynasty is at present unknown.—CI. iii, 167; Int. 41. Hoernle, JBA. lviii, 97 ff.