Page:The Heart of Jainism (IA heartofjainism00stevuoft).djvu/111

widow of the vanquished king of Gujarāt, Jayaśikhara, and that the child’s name was Vanarāja. Śīlaguṇasūri went to the neighbouring city and told the Jaina laymen of his discovery and of his belief that this child would one day be a king, and advised them to bring him up as a Jaina to the advantage of their faith. It all fell out as Śīlaguṇasūri had foretold, and when, grown to manhood after some years of outlawry, Vanarāja defeated his enemies and recovered the crown, he called Śīlaguṇasūri to his court, declared his intention of reigning as a Jaina king, and built the temple of Pañċāsarā Pārasanātha which still stands in Pāṭaṇa.

Bappaṭṭīsūri.An Āċārya named Siddhasena once had a dream in which he saw a lion’s cub on the roof of a temple; by this sign he knew that whoever should come to him during the following day would be capable of becoming a great sādhu. next day a clever lad called Bappa appeared, and Siddhasena asked him if he would like to stay in the Apāsaro and study with him. The boy agreed, and the boy’s father too was quite content, until he learnt that Siddhasena wished to turn his son into a sādhu. The father’s chief objection was that, as the boy was an only son, his own name would die out, but this was overcome by adding the father’s name to the son’s and calling him Bappabhaṭṭī. Bappabhaṭṭī as a sādhu was most zealous for the faith. Once he saw a boy weeping in a Jaina temple, who told him that he and his mother (one of the wives of the king of Kanauj) had been driven out through the intrigues of a co-wife, Bappabhaṭṭī arranged for the boy’s comfort and assured him that he would one day be king of Kanauj. When this happened, the young king called Bappabhaṭṭī to his court and assisted Jainism in every possible way by building temples and Apāsarā. Bappabhaṭṭī declined to stay long in the morally enervating atmosphere of a court, but during his second visit was enabled to save the king from the toils of a nautch girl. Visiting Bengal, Bappabhaṭṭī won over a reigning prince to the Jaina faith. Later he met a Buddhist preacher

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