History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c34.s3.7

v3.c34.s3.7

The third thing which requires to be pointed out is that these kings were Śaivites or devotees of Śiva and were never converted to Jainism as is often supposed. They were no doubt tolerant kings as Hindus generally are. They even went beyond tolerance and admired and venerated Jain Sadhus and learned men, yet they, like other Kshatriyas of the Hindu period, remained Hindus and were devotees of Śiva. They never call themselves Jains in their records and these never begin with the praise of Jina but always begin with the praise of Śiva. Even Kumārapāla who was a devoted disciple of Hemachandra, the great Jain pandit of this period, styles himself devotee of Śiva, is described as having obtained power by the favour of Śiva and builds temples to that god; in fact the deity of the family was Somnath whose famous shrine was situated in their country and was under their rule. Jain writers have no doubt tried to prove that Kumārapāla was a convert to Jainism. Indeed they represent even the Chāvadās as also Solankhis as Jains; but the inscriptions drawn up under the government of the Solankhis do not support their statements and we may believe that they continued to be Śaivites though they favoured Jainism which, no doubt, prospered under their rule as we shall show later on.