Cite
MLA
“Valabhi (Vallabhipur).” Hindu History, 2026, https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/valabhi/. Accessed .
APA
Hindu History. (2026). Valabhi (Vallabhipur). Retrieved , from https://www.hinduhistory.in/places/valabhi/
01Copper plates from Valabhi
Bhatarka, a general of the Guptas, made Valabhi his seat late in the fifth century, and his line ruled from it until the eighth. More than a hundred of their copper-plate grants survive, and nearly every one opens with the words that it was issued from Valabhi. They give villages to Brahmins and to viharas, and they let us follow the kings from senapati to maharajadhiraja. The town stood near the head of the Gulf of Khambhat, on a creek that let ships in; the sea has since drawn back and the site lies inland, round the village of Vallabhipur. Mounds about the village still give up coins with the Maitraka trident, seals and pottery.
02Valabhi and Nalanda
Xuanzang came to Valabhi around 640 CE and found a rich port with a hundred monasteries; he praised the earlier king Shiladitya I Dharmaditya for his gifts. Yijing, writing late in the seventh century, said that learned men went to Nalanda in Magadha and to Valabhi to complete their study and test themselves in debate. The Buddhist teachers Sthiramati and Gunamati taught here. Brahmin learning flourished beside them: the Bhattikavya, which teaches Sanskrit grammar while telling the life of Shri Rama, was written at Valabhi under a king Shridharasena. Graduates of Valabhi, by Yijing’s account, went on to serve at royal courts.
03The council of the Agamas
For nearly a thousand years the Jain monks carried Mahavira’s teaching by memory. The Kalpa Sutra closes with a note that it was written down 980 years after his nirvana, or by another count 993. Shvetambara tradition places this at Valabhi, in a council led by Devarddhi Gani Kshamashramana, in 453 or 466 CE, where the Agamas that remained were set on palm leaf; that canon is the Shvetambara scripture still. The Maitrakas’ last recorded king is Shiladitya VII, around 766 CE. No source says plainly how the city ended. Arab armies from Sindh raided the coast in the eighth century, and later Jain accounts tie the fall of Valabhi to raiders from the sea.
The life of this place
- 453 or 466 CEThe Jain Agamas were written down at the council of Valabhi under Devarddhi Gani.
- c. late 5th centuryBhatarka made Valabhi the seat of the Maitraka line.
- c. 640 CEXuanzang visited Valabhi and described its monasteries.
- c. 766 CEShiladitya VII, the last Maitraka king on record, issued his grants.
Vallabhipur is about 40 km north-west of Bhavnagar. Little stands above ground; the mounds round the village are what remain to see.
