Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 248

CRITICAL TIMES
233 Himaśītala was the king of Kalinga ;1 while a later Sanskrit work entitled Bhuvanapradipikā written in A.D. 1808 by Rāmaksşņa śāśtri, makes Himaśītala a Jaina king of Tundiradeśa, and a descendant of Lokapāla, born in the line of Guņapāla. We are told in this work that Himaśītala ruled in Kali 1125 Pingaļa.2
Without discussing this question further, it may be observed that the contemporaneity of Akalanka with king Himaśītala (A.D. 788) and with the Rāşțrakūta monarch Sähasa. tunga Dantidurga, suggests that Akalanka's great victory over the Buddhists may have been won in the latter part of the eighth century A.D. This period, therefore, reckoning from the time of Samantabhadra may be said to be the second phase in the progress of Jainism in the south.3
The third stage in the growth of Jainism in the Tamil country is reached when we come to the age of the Jaina sage Vajranandi. Devasena in his historical work dealing with the origin of the various Jaina sanghas, called Darśanasāra, composed in Vikrama Samyat 900 (A.D. 933), tells us
1. Harilal, Cat. of MSS., p. xxvi.
2. M. A. R. for 1918, p. 68. But this writer is unreliable. Among the other wrong statements he makes are the following That Cāmunda Rāya built the statue of Gomaţa in Kali 600 ; that Vinayāditya Ballāļa built Yādavapuri (Dorasamudra ?) in Saka 778; and that Vijayanagara was founded in Saka 1093 by the Narapati kings.
3. This explains why Akalanka is styled in A.D. 1163 as one " through whom the Jaina doctrine, which had been stainless from the beginning, became respondent without any stain". (E. C. II. 64, p. 17.) We may note in this connection that Rice placed Akalanka in the eighth or ninth century A.D. (My. & Coorg., p. 203); while Pathak assigning the same date to the Jaina guru, identified Sāhasatunga with the Rāşțrakūta king Krşņa I. (J. Bom. R.A.S. XVIII. p. 219).