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________________ JAINISM IN NORTH INDIA in the eulogies of kings, which fill so large a proportion of the inscriptions that have come down to our time, and with whatsoever broadmindedness we may look at them we have to confess that these works are only the output of grateful beneficiaries or court poets, whose object was rather to glorify their royal patron than to hand down to posterity an accurate account of his reign. It clear that successes are evidently exaggerated, while reverses are passed over in complete silence. The statements of the inscriptions are very frequently those of prejudiced witnesses, and they must be weighed as such if we are to estimate rightly the value of these few scattered fragments of historical evidence thich time has preserved. The achievements of Kharavela loom large in the Hathigumpha inscription, and in the words of Sir Ashutosh Mookerji "Stone has again yielded a complete record, full of faithful details, of the Emperor Kharavela of Orissa, whose name had disappeared from the annals of our country and passed into complete oblivion, though there was hardly a great town in India in the 2nd century before the Christian era which did not tremble at the sight, if not at the very name, of his mighty legions." 1 Anyhow there is no doubt that Kharavela was a prominent figure in his day, and that morally he had reached a height where he was secure, and where he was standing on no slippery ground. In short, he was a great man in his time, who gave ample prools of his greatness when he was called upon by Providence to ginde the destinies of a great people at a critical and unsettled period in Indian history, 1 J.BORS,,p 8 186
| SR No. | 011067 |
| Book Title | Jainism in North India |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Chimanlal J Shah |
| Publisher | Longmans Green and Compny London |
| Publication Year | 1932 |
| Total Pages | 66 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 3 MB |