Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol. I, Part I: History of Gujarat c6.4

c6.4

Buddhist and Jain records agree that Aśoka was succeeded, not by his son Kunála who was blind, but by his grandsons Dasaratha and Samprati. The Barábar hill near Gayá has caves made by Aśoka and bearing his inscriptions; and close to Barábar is the Nāgārjuna hill with caves made by Daśaratha also bearing his inscriptions. In one of these inscriptions the remark occurs that one of the Barābar caves was made by Daśaratha 'installed immediately after.' As the caves in the neighbouring hill must have been well known to have been made by Aśoka this 'after' may mean after Aśoka, or the 'after' may refer solely to the sequence between Daśaratha's installation and his excavation of the cave. In any case it is probable that Daśaratha was Aśoka's successor. Jaina records pass over Daśaratha and say that Aśoka was succeeded by his grandson Samprati the son of Kunāla. In the matter of the propagation of the Jain faith, Jain records speak as highly of Samprati as Buddhist records speak of Aśoka.¹ Almost all old Jain temples or monuments, whose builders are unknown, are ascribed to Samprati who is said to have built thousands of temples as Aśoka is said to have raised thousands of stupas. In his Pātaliputra-kalpa Jinaprabhasuri the well known Jaina Āchārya and writer gives a number of legendary and other stories of Pātaliputra. Comparing Samprati with Aśoka in respect of the propagation of the faith in non-Aryan countries the Āchārya writes: 'In Pātaliputra flourished the great king Samprati son of Kunāla lord of Bharata with its three continents, the great Acharya who established vihāras for Sramanas even in non-Aryan countries.'² It would appear from this that after Aśoka the Mauryan empire may have been divided into two, Daśaratha ruling Eastern India, and Samprati, whom Jaina records specially mention as king of Ujjain, ruling Western India, where the Jain sect is specially strong. Though we have no specific information on the point, it is probable, especially as he held Mālwa, that during the reign of Samprati Gujarāt remained under Mauryan sway. With Samprati Mauryan rule in Gujarāt seems to end. In later times (A.D. 500) traces of Mauryan chiefs appear in Mālwa and in the North Konkan. The available details will be given in another chapter.