The Rashtrakutas and their Times c20.s2.2

c20.s2.2

The way to the prosperity of Jainism in our period was already paved in the earlier age. Many of the Kadamba kings of the 5th and the 6th centuries were patrons of Jainism.¹⁶⁷ There are several spurious records at Lakshmesvar¹⁶⁸ really belonging to the 10th or 11th century, purporting to record grants in favour of Jain establishments made by early Chalukya kings Vinayāditya, Vijayāditya, and Vikramāditya II. These kings must have been known to the tradition, at least as occasional patrons of Jainism; otherwise it is hardly possible to explain why these, and no other kings, should have been selected as donors when the records were forged. Most of the Ganga kings of Talwad were either Jains or patrons of Jainism. Grants to Jain establishments made by Rāchamalla have been found in Coorg,¹⁶⁹ and when this king captured Vaḷhmalai hill, he commemorated its conquest by erecting a Jain temple upon it.¹⁷⁰ At Lakshmesvar there existed in our period buildings known as Rāya-Rāchamalla vasati, Ganga-Permādi-chaityālaya, and Ganga-kandarpa-chaityamandira.¹⁷¹ The names of these edifices bear testimony to the patronage of Jainism by the various members of the Ganga ruling family, after whom the buildings were named. Mārasimha II was a staunch Jain; he was a disciple of Ajitasena and his firm faith in his religion sustained him through the terrible ordeal of the Sallekhanā vow whereby he terminated his life after his abdication in c. 974 A.D. Mārasimha's minister Chāmuṇḍarāya is the author of the Chāmuṇḍapurāṇa; it was he who set up the colossal image of Gommates'vara at Sravana Belgola, and his reputation as a patron and devotee of Jainism was so great, that he was regarded as one of the three special promoters of Jainism, the other two being Gangarāja and Huḷḷa who were the ministers of the Hoysala kings Viṣṇuvardhana and Mārasimha I. In Noḷambawadi the religion was prospering, we have a record from that province mentioning the gift of a village by a merchant who had purchased it from the ruling king in order to bestow it upon the Jain monastery at Dharmapuri in Salem district.¹⁷² Among the Rāṣṭrakūṭa emperors Amoghavarṣa I was more a Jain than a Hindu. In his Pārs'vābhyudaya Jinasena calls himself as the chief preceptor (paramaguru) of that king who used to regard himself as purified by the mere remembrance of that holy saint.¹⁷³ Sārasangraha, a Jain māthematical work, also mentions that Amoghavarṣa was a follower of the syādvāda.¹⁷⁴ Amoghavarṣa's offering one of his fingers to the Goddess Mahālakṣmī, in order to extricate his kingdom from an epedemic,¹⁷⁵ only shows that he worshipped some Hindu deities along with Mahāvīra. He seems to have taken an active interest in Jainism; some of the Jain monasteries in Banavasi attribute, as my colleague the late Prof. R. D. Banerji informed me, the authorship of some of their religious ritual to Amoghavarsha. We have seen how Amoghavarsha I had abdicated his throne more than once; that was probably due to his being a sincere Jain, anxious to observe the vow of *akiñchanatā* (possessionlessness) at least for some time. This emperor had appointed Guṇabhadra, the author of the last five chapters of *Ādipurāṇa*, as the preceptor of his son Kṛṣṇa II; (176) the latter is known to have given a donation to a Jain temple at Mulgund. (177) So, if not a full-fledged Jain, he was at least a patron of Jainism. The same observation may hold good of the next ruler Indra III, for the Danavulapadu inscription (178) records that the prosperous Nityavarsha i. e. Indra III caused to be made a stone pedestal for the glorious bathing ceremony of Arhat S'ānti, in order that his own desires may be fulfilled. The last of the Rāṣṭrakūṭas, Indra IV, was a staunch Jain; when his efforts to regain his kingdom from Taila II failed, he committed suicide by the *sallekhanā* vow. (179)