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 46

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ROYAL BENEVOLENCE that period.1 A copper-plate grant dated in the 80th year of Kākusthavarmā's victory, relates that that king gave to Śrutakirti, who is called in the record senāpati or gene. ral (?), the field called Badovarakşetra (location specified), which belonged to the holy Arhats. The record which opens with an invocation to Jinendra, closes with reverence to Rşabha.? What precisely is meant by the term senapati applied to śrutakirti, and what was meant by the statement that that grant was awarded as a gift to Srutakirti for having saved himself, cannot be determined. Neither can we find out who was śrutakirti.3 Future research may reveal the fact that Srutakīrti was indeed a Jaina general. A later record of king Ravivarmā says that “ in former times the Bhoja priest śrutakirti, the best among men, who was the receptacle of learning, who enjoyed the reward of many meritorious actions, and who was possessed of the qualities of performing many sacrifices and bestowing gifts and tenderness,” had acquired the great favour of king Kākusthavarmā.
King Käkusthavarma's grandson was king Msgesavarmā, who reigned in the fifth century A.D.5 A copper-plate grant
1. Rice, My & Coorg., p. 21. Moraes places king Kākusthavarmă between A. D. 430 and A.D. 450, since, according to him, Mayūravarmā founded the dynasty in A.D. 345. Kadamba-kula, pp. 71-72. Mr. Govinda Pai places Kākusthavarmă between A.D. 265—A.D. 286. (Journal of Indian History, XIII, p. 165).
2. 1. A., VI p. 24.
3. A Srutakirti, author of Rāghava-Pāndaviya which could be read forwards and backwards, is mentioned as a colleague of Gandavimukta. But this Srutakirti belonged to the eleventh or twelfth century A.D. (E.C., II. Intr. p. 85. See also ibid., pp. 87, 88, for a later Srutakirti.)
4. 1. A., VI, p. 27.
5. Moraes places him between A.D. 475-A.D. 490. Kadambakula, p. 71.