The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c33.41

c33.41

The long reign of the next king, Amōghavarsha, who occupied the throne for not less than sixty-two years, was largely spent in constant wars with the Eastern Chalukya Rājas of Vengī. He transferred his capital from Nāsik to Mānyakheta, the Mānkīr of the Arab writers, now Mālkhed in the Nizam's dominions (N. lat. 17° 10′, E. long. 77° 13′).⁴ Amōghavarsha was the long-lived Balhāra of the merchant Sulaiman (A. D. 851), who reckoned him to be fourth of the great kings of the world, the other three being the Khalīfa of Baghdad, the emperor of China, and the emperor of Constantinople. In his old age Amōghavarsha abdicated in favour of his son, Krishna II, and devoted the brief remainder of his life to ascetic practices.¹ The Digambara, or naked, sect of the Jains was liberally patronized by Amōghavarsha. The rapid progress made by Digambara Jainism late in the ninth and early in the tenth century, under the guidance of various notable leaders, including Jinasena and Gunabhadra, who enjoyed the favour of more than one monarch, had much to do with the marked decay of Buddhism, which daily lost ground, until it almost wholly disappeared from the Deccan in the twelfth century.