Medieval Jainism

SR No.: 011082
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Bhasker Anand Saletore
Publisher: Karnataka Publishing House
Total Pages: 448
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 27 MB

Page 130

JAINA MEN OF ACTION
115 undoubtedly of greater consequence to the State than those connected with one's own creed. The reign of his pleasureloving elder brother king Ballāļa I (A.D. 1100-A.D. 1106 ?) had been placid and uneventful but for the brave stand which that king together with his brothers Vişnuvardhana and Udayāditya jointly had made against the attack on their capital Dorasamudra by the śāntara king Jagadeva, and for a sort of a punitive expedition which king Ballāļa I in A.D. 1104 led against the Cangaļva chief.' More serious problems awaited solution at the hands of king Vişņu. These problems concerned the north, west, south, and east of the Hoysala Empire. There were the stubborn Pāņdyas of Ucchangi in the north, and the Sāntaras in the north-west ; while in the west were the ancient Alupas of Tuļuvanādu and the Kādambas under Masaņa. The south was disturbed by the actvities of the Kongāļvas and the Cangāļvas, instigated possibly by the Western Cālukyas but certainly by the Coļas which latter power, as we have seen, had created the Kongāļva kingdom in Coorg. The Kongas and their allies the Pāņdyas, too, had to be reckoned with in the south. But the greatest danger was that of the Colas themselves who had occupied the capital of the ancient Gangas, Talakāờ, and practically wiped that power from the map of southern India.
The greatness of king Vişnuvardhana as a military genius consists in the fact that, while he realized the supreme need of dislodging the Colas from the seat of the Gangas, he saw the importance of annihilating the other enemies at the same time. Hence he concentrated measures which were directed against the enemies almost simultaneously, and had the pleasure of seeing all of them end in complete success for the
1. Rice, My. & Coorg, p. 99.