The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Mediaeval India c5.s2.236.3

c5.s2.236.3

The temple of Bâsupûjya was erected by a Jaipur chief, Sungree Siree Dhata and his wife Sungvin Siree Surjaice in the Yudhishthira era 2559 (see the Inscription in Major Francklin's Site of Ancient Palibothra, pp. 16, 17: Yudhishthira Era 2559 corresponds to 541 B.C.). At Nathnagar, which is a quarter (mahalla) of Champânagara exists this beautiful temple of the Digambara sect, which is dedicated to Bâsupûjya, who is said to have lived and died at the site of this temple. From the inscriptions on some Jaina images exhumed from the neighbourhood of an old Jaina temple at Ajmer, it appears that these images, which were of Bāsupūjya, Mallinātha, Pārśvanātha, and Vardhamāna were dedicated in the thirteenth century A.D., i.e., ranging from Samvat 1239 to 1247 (JASB., 1838, p. 52). The Uvāsagadasāo mentions that a temple called Chaitya Punnabhadda existed at Champā at the time o Sudharman, one of the eleven disciples of Mahāvīra who succeeded as the head of the Jaina sect on his death (Hoernle's Uvāsagadasāo, p. 2, notes, Jñātādharma-sūtrapāṭha). The town was visited by Sudharman, the head of the Jaina hierarchy, at the time of Kunika or Ajātaśatru who came barefooted to see the Gaṇadhara outside the city where he had taken up his abode.