History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.s6.19

v3.c41.s6.19

Turning from Tamil land, to Karṇāṭaka i. e. the Southern Maratha country and Mysore, we find that the early Chālukyas, in the former, though staunch Hindus themselves, patronised Jains and made grants to Jain temples and sadhus. Under the Rāṣṭrakūṭas in the second sub-period of our history (800-1000) Jainism prospered and as stated in Vol. II (p. 203) even some Rāṣṭrakūṭa kings became devotees of Jain saints and Jainism spread even among the cultivating population of the Southern Maratha country, the Vaiśyas being generally admirers of Ahimsā here as elsewhere and therefore usually Jains. The Ganga kings in Mysore were themselves Jains; and the last representative of the Rāṣṭrakūṭa line Indra IV being a son of Kṛṣṇa III by a Western Ganga princess was a devout Jain. When the later Chālukyas overthrew the last Rāṣṭrakūṭa king Kakkala, Indra IV tried to set up the Rāṣṭrakūṭa power but failed and as a devout Jain killed himself by Sallekhana, a Jain vow (Vol. II p. 151). In Malkhed, we found in the fort the remains of a Jain sanctuary (Vol. II p. 354) and in the town itself, there is a Jain Basti. It seems, therefore, clear that Jainism progressed in the Southern Maratha country at the end of the 10th century. But the later Western Chālukyas who came to power in this sub-period (1000-1200), Tailpa and others, were devout Śaivites and persecuted Jainism. "If the traditions of the country are to be believed, Jain statues and idols in the Bastis were thrown away and the Paurāṇic gods were substituted." (p. 112). Mr. Ramaswamy wrongly considers the rule of the later Chālukyas as short-lived. It was not overthrown by the Kalachūris in 1126 but in 1159 A. D., and Kalachūri rule was itself short-lived. It is, however, probable that the Kalachūri usurpation was a religious movement, Vijjana Kalachūri being a Jain. But Vijjana and the Kalachūri rule fell soon before the returning tide of Śaivism, as we will shortly describe, in a new form viz. the Lingayat schism.