History of Rastrakutas of Malkhed and Jainism

SR No.: 006719
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Nagarajaiah Hampa
Publisher: Ankita Pustak
Publication Year: 2000
Total Pages: 374
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 238

Prakrit Literature/177
6.5.2. Like Ponna, a contemporary Kannada poet, Puspadanta also wrote at a cristical transitory period of political turmoil. Puşpadanta witnessed the wax and wane of the Rāştrakūța empire. He authored his epic poem Mahāpurāņa in the reign of Kęsņa and he composed the other two narrative poems during the rule of Khottiga. Prakrit was cultivated with great vigor.
Puspadanta, greatest doyen of Prakrit literature, spent most of his creative period in Karnāṭaka. He fulfilled the desire and dream of his parents in dedicating his life to the propogation of Jainism through literature.
6.5.3. Kanakamara is another major Prakrit litterateur who is supposed to be an author of this age. Hiralal Jain has assigned C. 1050 C. E. as the probable date of composition of his classic Karakandacariu. But, recent researchers have found Kanakāmara to be an author who was a junior contemporary of Puşpadanta. Karakandacariu is a narrative poem full of epigrams charged with varied human and spiritual experience. It believed that the poet Kanakāmara has equated the hero of the poem with Krşņa-III.
6.6. Nēmicandra Siddhanta Cakravartti (Circa 982 C. E.), a name to conjure with, is known for his abundant Prakrit works. Puşpadanta, his senior contemporary poet had amply enriched Apabhramsa language and literature. Nēmicandra, without entering the realms of poetry, has mainly concentrated on the field of philosophy. He had the privilege of intimacy with Aryasēna, Viranandi, Indranandi, Kanakanandi, Ajitasena and other monachs. He was also contemporameous to Ponna, Ranna, Cāmundarāya, Rājamalla, Mārasimha, Sõmadēvasūri and Puspadanta.
6.6.1. C'Rāya had two celebrated teachers who shaped him to become a stalwart in enhancing the glory of Jaina