The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c9.s3.t7.4

v1.c9.s3.t7.4

The members of the royal family seem to have been generally devotees of Śiva and Viṣṇu for whose worship they built and dedicated the most important temples of the time in Bādāmi, Paṭṭadakal, and elsewhere. Though they themselves bestowed and sanctioned the bestowal by others of benefactions on Jain shrines and monasteries, there is not one clear case of any of them having embraced Jainism. The first kings of the line, Pulakēśin I, Kīrttivarman, Mangaleśa, and Pulakēśin II, seem to have gloried in the performance of Vedic sacrifices, in honouring learned Brāhmans and in earning for themselves titles like *brahmanya*, a title in the Sātavāhana tradition, *parama-māheśvara* and *paramavaiṣṇava*. They made grants during eclipses¹ and performed the *vratas* and *dānas* prescribed in the *smṛtis* of the land. The Nerūr grant of Mangaleśa, for instance, says that he fasted on a *Kārttika-dvādaśī* day and worshipped Viṣṇu before giving away the village of Kuṇḍivāṭaka to a Vedic scholar.² The same ruler transferred the merits of his excavation of the cave temple and the installation of the image of Viṣṇu to his elder brother Kīrtti-varman, pouring out water, a formal act of confirmation, in the presence of the Sun, Fire, and the Mahājanas, claiming for himself only the merit of having served his brother and protected his benefactions. Such formalities are seen to have attended almost every donation or gift. The gifts are sometimes earmarked for the specific purpose of the performance of domestic rituals, as in the Satāra grant of Viṣṇuvardhana³ which records the gift of a village to a group of Brāhmans, all brothers from one family, and describes the purpose of the gift as: *bali-charu vaiśvadeva-agnihotra-havana-pañcha-mahāyajñ-otsarpanārtham*. The Talamanchi plates of Vikramāditya end characteristically with a benediction on cows and Brāhmans—*svastyastu gō-brāhmaṇebhyaḥ*. That there were periodical festivals observed in temples is attested by the reference to the Paitāmahi Hiranyagarbha-mahotsava on the full-moon day in the month of Kārttika as the occasion of the gift recorded in the Karnūl plates of the first regnal year of Ādityavarman.¹ The contact maintained by Deccani Śaivism with its fountain sources in northern India is made clear by the presence of Jñānaśivāchārya from the northern bank of the Ganges as an *archaka* of the Vijayeśvara (Sangameśvara) temple at Paṭṭadakal; this *āchārya* made an endowment of thirty *nivartanas* of land at a cost of thirty *gadyāṇas*, intended to pay for popular lectures by *āchāryas* and the *pūjā* in the temple, as well as the materials needed for it.