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CHAPTER - 2
THE RĀȘTRAKŪTA MONARCHS - B
2.1. Amõghavarşa, the Asöka of Jainas, was a tiny tot and a precious child of fourteen years when he ascended the throne of an imperial dynasty. But having grown segacious, nurtured in the learned Jaina monastery at Maļkhed, he was sensitive, possessing an independent spirit. His star was in the ascendant.
2.1.1. "The Rāstrakūta monarchs... were particularly interested in Jainism... Amoghavarşa-I was more a Jaina than a Hindu. His chief preceptor was Jinasena, and he had appointed Gunabhadra as the preceptor for his son, Krsna-II. Amõghavarşa is also said to be the originator of the ritual of the Jaina monasteries at Banavāsi. An exact contemporary work Ganita-sāra-samgraha of Mahāvirācārya, graphically describes Amõghavarşa's initiation to Jainism" [Majumdar, A. K. : Concise History of Ancient India, vol. III : 1983 : 289-90).
2.1.2. The Rāstrakūta kingdom was so vast during this period that it was considered as one of the four major kingdoms in the world, according to Sulēmān(C.E. 851), the famous Arabbi travellor (the other three being Arab, China, and Constantenople). "Yet another contemporary Jain writer viz., Ugrāditya, the author of the medical treatise Kalyāṇakāraka, which was composed on mount Rāmagiri, situated in the level plains of Vengi in the country of
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