Pilgrimages |left Vastupala made thirteen pilgrimages to
Mount Shatrunjaya and
Girnar. In addition to his childhood visits with his father in 1193 CE and 1194 CE, he led five annual
sanghas (pilgrim caravans) to Shatrunjaya and Girnar between 1221 and 1237 CE as well as annual pilgrimages with his family to Shatrunjaya between 1227 and 1233 CE. His pilgrimage in 1221 CE is mentioned repeatedly in Girnar inscriptions and in contemporary works such as the
Kirti-kaumudi,
Sukrita-sankirtana and
Dharmabhyudaya. He died during his 1240 CE pilgrimage, which is described in
Vasanta-vilasa. Construction activities on Mount Abu on Girnar hill Vastupala was a philanthropist and commissioned the construction of numerous monuments and public utilities such as temples, rest-houses, wells, hospitals and tanks. Contemporary sources, such as
Sukrita-sankirtana, mention about fifty construction works. The number of his works increased considerably in later works of Rajashekhara Suri, Jinaharsha and Jinaprabha, although the number maybe exaggerated. Rajashekhara Suri mentioned that his charity extended from Shri Shaila in the south to
Kedara in the north and
Prabhasa in the west to Banaras in the east. Apart from building numerous Jain temples, he also built Brahmashalas,
Mathas, Shiva temples as well as mosques. Vastupala built a temple dedicated to
Mahavira, an Upashraya (prayer house for monks) and excavated a tank at Padaliptapura (modern day
Palitana). He also built large tanks at Arakapalita and Suryapura, two statues at the temple dedicated to Mahavira at
Modhera, and Shakunika-vihara at
Bharuch. The
Luniga-vasahi temple dedicated to
Neminatha was built on
Mount Abu by Tejapala in memory of his elder brother Luniga in 1231 CE. There are about thirty inscriptions mentioning additions to the temples and his family members. The
Prabandhas state that the Luniga-vasahi cost twelve crores and fifty-three lakhs while the Girnar temples cost eighteen crores and ninety-six lakhs, although these figures may be an exaggerated. Of the temples built by the brothers, only a few survive such as Vastupala-vihara at Girnar (1231 CE), Neminath Temple at Abu and the temple at Prabhas. Born into an aristocratic family, the brothers were quite wealthy and were patrons of many public works. The
Prabandhas contain numerous stories of their wealth, some of which read like folktales while others are contemporaneous accounts. One account tells of the brothers seeking to bury part of their wealth, worth one
lakh, near the village of Hadalaka (modern Hadala near
Dhandhuka). However, upon excavation, they discovered a large treasure. Anupama, wife of Tejapala, counselled Vastupala to keep it on the peaks of the mountains so it may not fall in the hands of others, as it fell to theirs. The brothers had the Jain temples of
Girnar and
Mount Abu built and led pilgrimages there. Her advice proved sound and these are the only surviving public works built by the brothers.
Patronage Vastupala was a patron to many poets and scholars, earning him nickname
Laghu Bhojaraja or Junior
Bhoja. His patronage of poetry is described in the
Prabandha-kosha,
Vastupala-charita,
Puratana-prabandha-samgraha and
Upadesha-tarangini. He was a tolerant of other faiths which led him to be patron to Jain as well as non-Jain poets and scholars as well, including Someshvara, Harihara, Arisimha and Nanaka. He also made a donation of 10000 drammas (coins) to the Shiva temple of Prabhas. Many literary works were commissioned at his request such as the
Katha-ratnakara of Narachandra Suri and the
Alankara-mahodadhi of Narendraprabha Suri. He had made a copy of
Dharmabhyudaya Mahakavya of
Udayaprabha Suri, a pupil of Vijayasena Suri. This copied manuscript, dated VS 1290 (1234 CE), has been stored in the Jain library of Khambhat.
Literary works He was an expert poet having studied
Nyaya,
Vyakarana (grammar) and Sahitya (literature), as well as
Jain philosophy under Narachandra, and was eulogised in the works of others. He had received titles of 'Kavi-kunjara', 'Saraswati-kantha-bharana' (Ornament of the goddess of knowledge
Saraswati's neck), 'Kavi-chakravarti' (
universal king of poetry) and 'Kurchala-saraswati' (Saraswati with a beard) for his literary capabilities. Harihara, Someshvara and other poets gave him a poetic name, Vasantapala, and Balachandra named his biographical work,
Vasanta-vilasa. Vastuapala wrote
Naranarayanananda and noted in its conclusion that his first poem was a hymn praising
Adinatha in the temple on the Shatrunjaya hills. This hymn is
Adinatha Stotra, or
Ishwara-manoratha-maya Stotra, and consists of twelve verses. Another of his Stotra,
Nemistava, contains ten verses, eight dedicated to
Neminatha and two to himself.
Ambika Stotra is dedicated to
Ambika, the presiding goddess of Neminatha and the
family goddess of Pragavata, his clan. It has ten verses, eight of which praise Ambika, the ninth contains blessings for the devotee and the tenth is reserved for himself. He wrote a short ten verse devotional,
Aradhana, which would be his last composition.
Prabandha-kosha notes that the first verse of it, "Na Kritam Sukritam Kinchit", was spoken by him on his death-bed.
Aradhana is also mentioned in the
Puratana-prabandha-samgraha and the
Prabandha-chintamani. Vastupala was considered an expert in composing Sanskrit
suktis (stray poetry), drawing praise from Someshvara and Udayaprabha. A number of his works appear in anthologies written by others.
Sukti-muktavali, a 13th-century anthology commissioned by the
Yadava general Jalhana, contains four of his verses as does the
Sharngadhara-paddhati written by Sharangdhara of
Shakambhari. His
Naranarayanananda is a long poem describing the friendship between
Krishna and
Arjuna, their walk and talks in the gardens of Raivataka (
Girnar), and the later abduction of Krishna's sister
Subhadra by Arjuna. The subject is taken from
Vanaparva of
Mahabharata. It consists of 16 cantos with 794 verses. He mentioned his pilgrimages at the end of the poem so it must have been written after 1221 CE, the year of his first major pilgrimage. Parts of the poem were quoted by others, such as
Kavya-kalpalata of Amarachandra, who drew one verse, and Jalhana who included the sixth verse from the first canto in his
Sukti-muktavali. ==Sources of information==