The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.189

c20.189

The Shikarpur inscription No. 284, belonging to the time of Kṛṣṇa II.¹⁴⁸ records the construction of a tank and temple by a private individual, who also granted a piece of land to maintain them. Somadeva, a contemporary Jain writer from Karnatak, boldly departs from the traditional view, which is very rarely the case with him, and declares that the endowments of feeding and drinking houses, and the erection of temples and rest houses was the most important duty of the Vaiśyas or the moneyed classes.¹⁴⁹ The theory and practice of our age, therefore, show that the doctrine that charity was the best means of securing religious merit was not entirely and exclusively for the benefit of the Brahmanas; the community as a whole also benefited by it.