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THE EVIDENCE OF TRADITION.
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to the time of this Rāja Rāja Narēndra who ascended the throne at' Rajahmundry in the year 1022 A.D. About the year 1053 A.D. he induced the Telugu rendering of Vyasa's Mahābhāratarn by his courtier Nannayabhatta, as perhaps a rival to the Pampa Bhārata or Vikramārjuna Vijaya known to him in the Kannada language and setting forth ancient story and legend from a distinctly Jaina point of view. A critical and comparative examination of the Jaina and the Telugu Bhāratas does not fall within the range of the present investigation. Suffice it to say that later poets who attempted to appraise Nannaya's work regarded as “trashy worthless inaterial,” all the literature that preceded it in Telugu and delighted the hearts of the Andhras. This description may well indicate the attitude of the Pauranic Revivalists to Jaina literature even in the Telugu districts proper. Just a single verse may be quoted as an illustration of this type of appraisement of an old poet's work as a contribution to the progress of culture :
భాసుర భార తొధణములభంగులనిక్క మెరుX నేరమిక్ | గాసటబీస టేచదివి గాధలద్రవ్యు తెనుంగువారికి | వ్యాసముని ప్రణీతపర మాధణము తెల్లము జేసినట్టియ | జాసనకల్పులందలకు నాద్యులనన్న యతిక్కనార్యులక్ II
We say, the beginnings of the decline, Jaina decline. advisedly, for a few years before A.D. 1022, during the time of Rāja Rāja's father Vimalāditya (Mummadi. Bhima), his guru visited
