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 69

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MEDIÆVAL JAINISM the Ganga king of that name about whose benevolence to Jainism we have already given sufficient proof in the previous pages. It was during the reign of king Someśvara I that the earliest Kannada work on astrology called Jätakatilaka was written in A.D. 1049 by the Jaina priest Sridharācārya, who hailed from Narigunda in Beļuvalanādu.
As regards the name Pāņdya occurring in the Pārśvanātha basti record, it is not improbable that it is to be identified with that of Tribhuvanamalla Pāņdya of the Ucchangi Pāņdya line, who was the contemporary of the Western Cālukya kings Jayasimha III and Someśvara 1.2 But until further proof is secured, this will be only a conjecture.
Vādigharațţa mentioned in the above inscription was no other than Vădibhasimha Ajitasena. This is proved by the Grāmadabasti inscription dated A.D. 1103 referred to above, which tells us that Ajitasena Pandita was known as Vādigharațţa, and that he belonged to the Drāviļa sangha and the Arungaļānvaya.3
King Someśvara I's eldest son and successor king Somes
1. M. A. R. for 1911, p. 59; Kavicarite I, pp. 75-76.
2. Rice, My. & Coorg, p. 150. A stone inscription near Bhadrā in Bāļe-Honnūr, Koppa tāluka, gives us the interesting information that the Sāntara chief Māra was the chief disciple (agraśişya) of the great muni Vādībhasimha Ajitasena, and that the former erected a nisidhi, obviously on the death of the Jaina guru. This record is undated, but has been assigned to A.D. 1090 by Rice on valid grounds. (E. C. VI, Intr., p. 11. Kp. 3, p. 76.) The later Säntaras bore the title Pāņdya (Rice, My. & Coorg, p. 140), but it cannot be made out whether this could be said of Māra as well.
3. E.C., VIII, Ti. 192, p. 205. After Ajitasena's time, the titles Vādībhasimha, Vādikolāhala and Tārkkika-cakravarti became hereditary among the Jaina gurus. See E. C. V, Cn. 149, p. 191