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PATRONAGE TO JAINISM BY THE SILAHĀRAS OF KOLHAPUR
V. V. Mirashi
Like all great kings of ancient India, the Silahāras of Konkan and Kolhapur extended liberal patronage to the different religions current in their kingdom. They were themselves followers of Puranic Hinduism, and naturally built temples of Hindu gods and goddesses, made grants for their worship and offered liberal patronage to Vedic scholars and revered sages of the Vaisnava and Saiva sects living in their kingdom. In the present article we confine ourselves to the patronage extended by the Silāhārās of Kolhapur to the different religions flourishing in their kingdom, and especially to Jainism, as known from the literary and inscriptional records of the age.
The Silāhāras of Kolhapur declare in their records that they had obtained a gracious boon of the goddess Mahālakṣmi of Kolhapur. The temple of the goddess had become a well-known Sāktapitha in that age. It is not definitely known who built the temple and when. That the goddess was famous as early as the beginning of the ninth century A.D. is evident from the reference to the offering to her of the little finger of his left hand by the Rāṣṭrakūta king Amoghavarṣa I (A.D. 814-878).2 The present temple may have been built by a Sinda king of Karahāṭa (modern Karhāḍ in the Sātārā District). That the Sindas were occupying the Southern Maratha Country before the advent of the Silahāras of Kolhapur is known from an incomplete grant of the Sinda king Adityavarman dated Śaka 887 (A.D. 965) found somewhere in the Poona District and published by us. 1. See e.g. श्रीमन्महालक्ष्मी लब्धवरप्रसादादिसमस्तनामावलिविराजितः the Talale plates of Gandarāditya, J B.B.R.A.S., Vol. XIII (Old Series), pp. 1 f. Ep. Ind., Vol. XVIII, p. 248.
2.
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