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As for the date of the author, we have the following verses towards the end of Uttara-puraṇa:
पुष्पयंत कयणा धुयपं । जइअहिमाण मेरुणामंके ॥ कक भत्तिए परमत्थे । जिणपय पंकय मौलियहत्थे ॥ कोहण संवछरे आसाढए । दहमए देयहे चंदसहरूढए ॥
These verses convey that Pushpadanta completed the Purana on the 10th of the bright fortnight of Asl adha in Krodhana samvatsara. Apparently there is no mention of the year in the ver-es, and hence we have to look for other data. in the work to determine the year Pushpadanta tells us that he was the protégé of Bharata. the minister of king Subhatungaraya of Manyakheta. The same king at cther places in the work has been referred to as Vallabharava. On both these names we have in the manuscripts a marginal explanatory, note "Krishnaraja" which proves that the note-maker thought Subhatungara va and Vallabharasa to be only different names of "Krishnaraja. History tells us 'hat there have I een three kings bearing the name of Krishnaraja in the Rashtrakuta dynasty of the South. lu the time of Krishnaraja 1, the Kashir kuta capital was not at anvakheta but near Nasik. Amoghav tsha I who-e reign began in A D. 815 established Manyakheta as a capital town and Krishnaraja II and III sat on the throne there. Krishna I reigned from about 722 to 758 and for Krishna III we have e igraphical and literary records of years ranging from Saka 801 to 881 (A.D. 939 to 959). In order to decide as to which of these two kings has been referred to by Pushparanta, we should examine some other data deducible from his epic. Quite at the beginning of the great work we have a line in which we are told that the king of Manyakheta who is here called "Tudiga" killed the king of the Cholas.
[ उववद्धजूडु भूमंगभीसु । तोडेप्पणु चोडहो तणउ सीसु ॥ ]
We read in Dr, Smith's Early History of India (pp. 424-430) that "The war with the Cholas in the reign of Krishna III Rashtrakuta was remarkable for the death of Rajaditya, the Chola king, on the field of battle in A. D. 949". Again in the Imperial Gazetteer, Vol. I, on page 332," we read, "The Rashtrakuta Krishna III (940-71) had great success in the Chola country and inscriptions in that tract show that he exercised sovereign rights over parts of it. inscription at Atkur, also in Mysore of the year 949-50 relates that at a time when the Rashtrakuta king Krishna III was warring
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