History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v2.c24.s1.457

v2.c24.s1.457

928a A few striking instances of religious tolerance among kings and common people may be cited with advantage. The Pāla king Mahīpāla I granted a village to a brāhmaṇa of the Vājasaneyaśākhā in honour of Lord Buddha (E. I. vol. 14 p. 324). Similarly the king Subhakaradeva who was a great devotee of Buddha (paramasaugata) granted two villages to 200 brāhmaṇas (Neulpur grant in E. I. vol. 15 p. 1); vide also E. I. vol. 15 p. 293. The famous Emperor Harṣa, whose father was a great devotee of the Sun, and who was himself a great devotee of Śiva, pays the highest honour to his elder brother Rājyavardhana who was a very devout Buddhist (paramasaugata). Vide the Madhuban copperplate Inscription in E. I. vol. I. p. 67 and E. I. vol. VII. p. 155. Uṣavadāta makes large gifts to brāhmaṇas as well as to communities of Buddhist monks (vide Nasik Inscriptions No. 10 and No. 12 in E.I. vol. VIII p. 78 and p. 82). The Valabhī king Guhasena who was himself a Māheśvara (a Śaiva) made a grant of four villages to a bhikṣu-saṅgha. From the Paharpur plate of the Gupta year 159 (478-79 A. D.) it appears that a brāhmaṇa and his wife deposited three dīnāras with a city council for the maintenance of the worship of *arhats* at a vihāra (E. I. Vol. XX. p. 59). The Mulgund inscription of the time of Rāṣṭrakūṭa Kṛṣṇa II. (of 902-3 A. D.) shows that to a temple of Jina at Mulgund a field was given by a brāhmaṇa of the Bellāla family (E. I. vol. XIII. p. 190). Vide Rice's 'Mysore and Coorg from Inscriptions' pp. 113 and 207 for an account how a Vijayanagar king settled the dispute between Jainas and Śrīvaiṣṇavas in 1368 A. D.