Comprehensive History of Jainism Volume II

SR No.: 002003
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Aseem Kumar Chaterjee
Publisher: Firma KLM Pvt Ltd
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 414
Language: English
Classification: Book_English, History, & Religion
File Size: 19 MB

Page 36

26
COMPREHENSIVE HISTORY OF JAINISM
in saving the famous Ajitanatha temple, built by Kumarapāla at Taranga hills, from that iconoclast.
However, it should not be supposed that all the Jains of those days, were against Ajayapala. We have the evidence of the Moharajaparājaya178, a contemporary work, and written long, long before the Prabandhacintamani, which describes its author as a 'swan to the lotus feet of Ajayadevacakravartı'. This shows that Yaśaḥpāla, who was such an admirer of Kumarapala, was also a great favourite of his successor. Another Jain author, called Māṇikyacandra, tells us in his Pārsvanathacaritra,177 composed in Vikrama Samvat 1276, that one Vardhamana, was the ornament in the courts of both Kumarapala and Ajayapala, and brightened the courts of these two monarchs by his talks on the Jain philosophy.
That Ajayapala was a devout Hindu and a believer in the Brahmanical religion, is proved by the testimony of the Surathotsava, composed by the great Brahmin Acarya Someśvara. According to Someśvara, 178 during the reign of Ajayapāla, there was daily worship of Siva and the Brahmins were well-rewarded. We further learn from the same source that Someśvara's father Kumāra, a great devotee of Śiva, was a hot favourite of Ajayapāla. It was apparently during Ajayapala's reign, that the paternal uncle of Somesvara viz. Sarvadeva, had immersed the remains of Kumārapāla in the sacred Ganges,179 It appears that immediately after the succession of Ajayapala, there started a Brahmanical revival, and this is also suggested by a line of Sridhara's Devapattana prasasti,180 according to which Ajayadeva caused the tree of the Vedic religion (Naigamadharmavṛkşa) to grow again. The implication of this passage in quite clear. Apparently during the reign of his immediate predecessor viz. Kumārapāla, the Brāhmaṇical religion had received a setback, an inference, which is also supported by a number of slokas of the Brahmakhanda181 of the Skanda Purana. A crucial passage of this work189 pointedly mentions the fact, that Kumarapala had renounced