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Siddhasena Divākara and Vikramāditya
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of the Gupta rulers for the Jaina Faith to such an extent that the Emperor, again true to the picture which both Siddhasena and Harişeņa have given of his fairness, great-heartedness and generosity, restituted to the Jainas the Kudangeśvara Temple which had formerly been a Jaina temple199, allowed them to erect Tīrthankara temples where they pleased and accorded substantial grants and other concessions to places of Jaina worship. And who knows to what extent that great monarch, merciful and philosophically inclined as he was, may have not been attracted by Jaina doctrines, for whom a more eloquent and enthusiastic exponent than Siddhasena can scarcely be imagined !
That other well-known episode of the 'Four Slokas' referred to above, representing poet and patron as bandying Samsksta verses a la impromptu, likewise fits in well with the characteristics of both, supplied by the Dvātrimśikā and epigraphical records.
The story, too, that Siddhasena temporarily became somewhat lax in his habits, dazzled by court-life and royal favour, and had to be brought back to the fold of rigid monastic discipline by his old Guru, may be a reflection of the honours which the poet must have enjoyed at the court of his patron, though, it is true, the Prabandhas do not connect this episode with Vikrama's name.
It is not unlikely either that Siddhasena, as the Prabhāvakacarita ( 1.1., p. 60, St. 164 ff.) relates, did visit King Dhanañjaya of Broach, if this king could be proved to be identical with King Dhananjaya of Kusthalapura, who, according to Harişeņa, was defeated by Samudragupta in the course of his southern campaign. This would, however, presuppose Kusthalapura, a mysterious name to epigraphists as yet, to be identical with Broach, and the latter to be counted as situated in the Daksiņāpatha : assertions which, however, it is not intended to advocate here.
If thus all the above observations combine in proclaiming that Siddhasena Divākara flourished during the reign of Samudragupta, and that most likely during his later years, it can moreover be
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