Vanraj Chavda

Vanaraja (IAST: Vanarāja Cāvaḍā) was the most prominent king of the Chavda dynasty who ruled Gujarat from c. 746 CE to c. 780 CE.

Life Early life Kṛishṇabhaṭṭa’s (also known as Kṛṣṇakavi) Ratnamālā says that in 695/696 CE (Samvat 752) Jayaśekhara, the Cāvaḍā king of Pañcāsara, a village (in modern-day Patan district, Gujarat), was attacked by the Chaulukya king Bhūvaḍa of Kalyāna-kaṭaka in Kanyākubja (probably Kanauj) and slain by Bhūvaḍa in battle. Before his death Jayaśekhara, he sent his pregnant wife Rūpasundarī to the forest in charge of her brother Surapāla, one of his chief warriors who now turned to banditry. After Jayaśekhara’s death on the battlefield, Rūpasundarī gave birth to a son named Vanarāja. This tradition is of dubious validity, as there is no city called Kalyāna-kaṭaka near Kanauj, and the Cālukya capital of Kalyāṇa in the Deccan was only founded in the 11th century, about 250 years after the events are stated to have taken place. Additionally, there is no known king named Bhūvaḍa, although some scholars guess that it may refer to the Cālukya king Vijayāditya, who was also known as Bhuvanāśraya.

Merutuṇga, the author of the Prabandhachintāmaṇi, tells a story that Rupasundarī was living in Pañcāsara and had placed her infant son in a hammock on a tree, when a Śvetāmbara Jain monk named Śīlaguṇasūri who was passing by noticed that the tree's shade was not bending, which he believed was a sign of the boy's role to be a propagator of Jainism. The story adds that a nun named Vīramatī brought up the boy whom the monks called Vanarája, literally "the forest king". When eight years old, the monk told Vanarāja to protect his place of worship from rats. The boy’s skill in shooting rats and his horoscope convinced the monk he was not fit to be a monk but was worthy of a kingdom. He therefore returned the boy to his mother. These details seem invented by the Jain writers themselves. No mention of any such story occurs in the Ratnamálá.

The Kuvalayamālā mentions a legend about Vanaraja that he was assisted by a Jain monk in acquiring his kingdom.

He also credited with the foundation of Champaner, in honour one of his generals, Champa.

Religion

Vanaraja Chavda is not portrayed as a Jain by birth, yet he is shown participating in distinctly Jain rituals of kingship by Jain authors.

Temples Merutuṅga's Prabandhacintāmaṇi states that at the suggestion of Śīlaguṇasūri, Vanarāja built the Pañcāsara chaitya (temple), which contained an idol of Tirthankara Pārśvanātha with a statue of Vanarāja as a worshipper. The figure of Vanarája is still shown at Sidhpur and a woodcut of it is given by Alexander Kinloch Forbes in his Rás Málá (1856). He also erected a temple to Kaṇṭeśvarī near his palace. Neither of these temples survived till modern-day.

Haribhadrasūri's Nemināha-cariu states that the minister Ninnaya built a temple of Ṛṣabha at Aṇahillapāṭaka, and his son, the general Lahara built a temple to Vindhyavāsinī at Sandāthala.

In popular culture Vanraj Chavdo (1881), a Gujarati novel written by Mahipatram Rupram Nilkanth, is based on the life of Vanraja Chavda. Indian films on the king include: Vanraj Chavdo (1923) by Shree Nath Patankar, Vanraj (1930) by Nanubhai Vakil.

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